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Did you read Jessica Bennett’s NYTimes article When Your Punctuation Says It All (!)? She talks about how texting has led to a kind of “micro-punctuation” — like how periods can sometimes seem aggressive, or how the absence of excessive punctuation can make it seem like something is wrong (!!!). Punctuation itself has even come to take on meanings (like how one guy types “…” to convey “deadpan straight-face”).
We were talking in the office about how people have distinct texting styles. Here are three…
1. The Classicist. Grammar enthusiast (and former book editor) Caroline is old-school when it comes to texting: She capitalizes proper nouns and ends every sentence with a period, question mark or (single!) exclamation point, as appropriate. As Bennett says in the Times, “I went out with a guy based on his use of dashes once. Within moments of our first interaction—over text message—I was basically in love. He didn’t just use the lazy singular dash (“-“) as a pause between his thoughts, or even the more time-consuming double-dash (“–“). Nope. This man used a proper em dash.” Meanwhile, Caroline once agreed to go out with a guy based almost exclusively on his proper use of a colon.
2. The Emoji-Obsessive. Emojis!!! If you’re like me, you use the thumbs ups instead of writing “okay,” the running guy when you’re late, and the kiss face when you’re signing off. My friend Gemma can tell entire stories in emojis, and my sister will sometimes say, “Good emoji work,” which is the ultimate praise. I even find myself craving emojis when they aren’t available; for example, when writing a apologetic email, I might say, “(Insert cringing emoji here)”.
3. The Savant. Our old nanny Brady takes it to the next level and uses Riffsy, which adds gifs to your keyboard. When I was running late one day (as always), she sent this. When she texted me her weekly hours, she sent this. When Anton pooped in the bath, she sent…this. They made me laugh out loud x a million.
How do you write texts? Which style are you? Any quirks? Or most-used emojis? Please share below…
P.S. Do you sign emails “xoxo”? And how often do you check your phone?
