*By Bridgette Webb*
Exclamation points may not have the effect you intend!
Years of overuse have stripped the punctuation mark of its meaning, turning it into an emotional catchall that could suggest anything from actual excitement and friendliness to reassurance and anger.
The ambiguity is stressing many out, and has major implications for coherent communication in the digital age, according to Katie Bindley, a reporter for the The Wall Street Journal.
"We are having conversations now that would otherwise be spoken taking place on text or email," said Bindley in an interview Tuesday on Cheddar. "With that you lose the ability to read facial expressions and tone of voice, so people are overcompensating for that."
And it's not only exclamation marks that are open to debate.
A 2016 [study](9https://www.binghamton.edu/news/story/873/study-punctuation-in-text-messages-helps-replace-cues-found-in-face-to-face) of 126 undergraduates by Binghamton University found that ending sentences with periods in a text was perceived as abrupt and insincere.
"Over text your often having these very quick back and forth, that mirrors spoken conversations," said Bindley. "We know on some level that over text that the addition of a period can really feel mean."
Though the punctuation debate is likely to continue to fill countless Slack channels and text message threads, Bindley advises people to use punctuation that makes sense to them.
"If you are naturally a bubbly person, I think its fine to use more than someone that's maybe not so bubbly," she said. "It really comes down to personal preference and your own comfort level."
For full interview, [click here] (https://cms.cheddar.com/videos/VmlkZW8tMjIwODk=).
This November, Philips Norelco is partnering with Movember® in the United States and Canada to urge men to tackle health issues that are right under their noses. Brett Bardsley, Category Leader, Philips Grooming & Beauty, and Dr. Jake Taylor MD, MPH, Chief Urology Resident at NYU Langone Health, join None of the Above to break down how this partnership is more than just growing & grooming a Mo all month long, what men should know about their own mental and physical well-being, and the impact Philips continues to have as a global health technology company supporting men’s health programming and delivering meaningful innovations.
Learn more about how to get involved at Philips.com/Movember
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