One texting mistake that you should change
You might be accidentally sending the wrong message...
Communicating through social media has become second nature for many of us. Whether you’re sliding into DMs or chatting on a WhatsApp group, these platforms keep us connected.
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But there’s one challenge we’ve all faced: texting doesn’t always capture the full range of our emotions.
Sure, emojis help – but you don't always want to use them to show that your happy message is happy or your sad message is sad.
Consider this: “Sure” and “Sure 😊” feel very different, don’t they? One might come across as abrupt, while the other feels warm and inviting.
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While some might dismiss this as overthinking, there’s actual science behind the way we text and the signals we send.
If you don't want to send the wrong message, it's time to consider how you punctuate your texts.
Celia Klin, an associate professor of psychology and associate dean at Binghamton University's Harpur College, led an interesting study alongside a team of researchers.
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The study involved 126 Binghamton University undergraduates who participated in exchanging both text messages and handwritten notes.
The experiment consisted of 16 different exchanges. In each exchange, the sender's message contained a statement followed by a question. For example, "Dave gave me his extra tickets. Wanna come?"
Participants responded with a single affirmative word, such as “Okay” or “Yeah”.
There were two versions of each experimental exchange: one in which the receiver's response ended with a period and one in which it did not end with any punctuation.
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The researchers observed that the messages ending in a period were rated as less sincere than those without, highlighting the subtle but significant impact punctuation has on how messages are interpreted.
While texting might be convenient, it does lack the social cues present in face-to-face conversations.
When someone is talking, it's easy to convey social and emotional information through facial expressions, tone of voice, pauses and more.
People obviously can't use these mechanisms when they are texting. Thus, it makes sense that texters rely on what they have available to them – emoticons, deliberate misspellings that mimic speech sounds and, according to our data, punctuation.
In their latest findings, the researchers discovered that an exclamation mark is perceived as more sincere than other forms of punctuation.
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