Gen Z, full stops and tone

This article explores how Gen Z (those born between approximately 1997 and 2012) perceive the use of full stops to be 'angry' in texting or messaging.

Yahoo News - Generation Z think full stops imply anger, language experts say

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Useful quotes from the article:

'We've been dropping full stops in informal writing for centuries. And today...? Think Post-it notes on fridges. Or, more formally, newspaper headlines. Or many kinds of legal documents. These are all special circumstances, and the SMS world is just the latest example.' - Professor David Crystal, linguist and author

'The full stop is redundant in SMS-like messages, as a text is ended by sending it, and a sentence therefore does not need to be finished with a full stop... The full stop is not always construed as “intimidating”, but merely carries “an emotional charge, which can be anything from mild to strong”.'

- Professor David Crystal, linguist and author

'It doesn't affect any other variety of the language, so there's no risk of the full stop becoming defunct. That wouldn't happen, as punctuation is an essential means of making writing clear and easy to read. But in SMS, where it's obvious that a sentence has come to an end, and there are no sentence sequences that need to be demarcated, it's really redundant.' - Professor David Crystal, linguist and author

'Fads and fashions that de-skill young people should be resisted. There is a danger that overuse of short-cut text communication will erode an ability to write correctly in non-text situations. Employers, for example, are unlikely to view favourably text messaging English. Young people should be encouraged to write and speak according to context and that includes a command of formal English.'

- Chris McGovern, chair of the Campaign for Real Education

'More and more people now see ending messages with a full stop as rude. If you're a young person and you're sending a message to someone, the default way to break up your thoughts is to send each thought as a new message. Because the minimum thing necessary to send is the message itself, anything additional you include can take on an additional interpretation.' - Gretchen McCulloch, internet linguist