Can we just stop making stuff up?
Originally published at Quantum Matrix Scribe. Please leave any comments there.
The title of a recent article at The New Republic reads:
The Period Is Pissed
When did our plainest punctuation mark become so aggressive?
The author then goes on to assume that adding a period at the end of your texts indicates you’re angry.
This is one of the plainest cases of someone just making shit up. Ok, so he cites a professor of linguistics and the editor of something called the Awl (presumably short for “The Awful,” judging by the editor’s comments.) But this guy is definitely smoking something.
Look, a period at the end of sentences is not indicating aggressiveness. It is proper grammar. Nothing more, nothing less. Yes, some people don’t do that and use line breaks because it’s more efficient to type that way on mobile phones. Not technically proper, but it’s a convenience to use such a wonderful device. I have no problem with that. But if you start assuming that using periods in a message indicates “anger,” well, then you’re going to have a lot of problems in your life. You’re probably going to end up hating a lot of people or feeling really bad about yourself. And then your life is going to get worse.
Do yourself a favor. Don’t assume. It makes an ass out of you and me.
EDIT: I am now very angry at my high school for making me think grammar is spelled with an “e”.