Text message users who are sticklers for punctuation come across as passive aggressive. Period.
Mobile phone owners who text using correct punctuation come across as being passive-aggressive to the recipient.
That at least is the finding of researchers at the Binghampton University, New York, who found that punctuation in text messaging is primarily perceived as a tool to communicate tone – not grammar.
They presented participants with a range of text message exchanges, some using full stops, others without and observed that
Whilst full-stops litter the English language their usage in texts is far less pervasive giving the recipient cause to question the effort behind its inclusion be that insincerity or even a subtle hint at passive aggression.
In their report the authors wrote: “The rapid pace of texting mimics face-to-face communication, leading to the question of whether the critical non-verbal aspects of conversation, such as tone, are expressed in computer-mediated communication.
“No such difference was found for handwritten notes. We conclude that punctuation is one cue used by senders, and understood by receivers, to convey pragmatic and social information.”