But what if you don’t know yet? While we were learning conjugations, conjugations, spelling and punctuation marks together in Russian classes in primary, secondary and high school and putting the knowledge we acquired into practice, everything changed in real life.
For me, it started about five years ago. The first to fall were exclamation marks: putting an exclamation mark at the end of a message on any social network is like punching a person in the face. Unheard of rudeness, invasion of personal space and violation of boundaries. Okay, everyone understood this, even those who still periodically try to type in CAPITAL LETTERS. This is actually very old history; everyone has already learned that using caps lock means yelling at someone. The exclamation mark is as close as possible to capital letters – everything is clear here.
Besides. Normal periods at the end of sentences are banned by the internet police. Those whose absence could lead to poor grades in school.
I don’t remember who, where or when scolded me for using periods in messages. They say you sound rude, can’t you be more polite? This was a few years ago and I was outraged then: have they gone completely crazy, now points are also banned? But time passed and gradually it became somehow strange for me to use them and I thought “bye bye dots!” I haven’t made any such decisions. Before I knew it, they disappeared from my communications. I noticed this recently while chatting with a friend. “Do you remember the theater tomorrow?” – I write and he answers me: “Yes.” And I put an end to it! And then again and again. And then I immediately felt that he was speaking to me somehow harshly, can you imagine? I’ve been paying attention to these points ever since, and that’s actually the point of trends, when someone hits me with their points, I feel some kind of discomfort.
I just want to say: “Hey, calm down!” No one wants to offend me, although I understand that this is, of course, nonsense, a person does not know that one point can harm someone.
Many scientific works have already been written about the etiquette of communication in social networks, but most researchers only state the facts: periods at the end of sentences disappear, question marks remain, there can now be a lot of them and they do not need words because example: “????” This is a sign that the interlocutor is extremely impatient and wants to communicate immediately, I told you about exclamation points, now if you come across them, they are most often in parentheses, ellipses are generally a whole world, parentheses are universal as a way. To change a point and not be considered rude, you could write not just an op-ed but an entire doctoral thesis about emoji usage.
But nothing can answer the question: Where did these unwritten rules come from? Who was upset with the period, when and who decided to cancel it? I asked my friend, a Russian teacher, why he sometimes missed some points in our correspondence. He thought for a moment, remembered the modern researcher of the Russian language Maxim Krongauz, who believed that the period meant a desire to end the conversation, and then answered: “I don’t know, probably just laziness” – and again did not put a point.
Probably, the same supreme laziness will soon leave us without a comma. I rarely find myself hanging these myself – it doesn’t look very neat, like you’re smarter than everyone else or something. And I emphasized the introductory word with a comma and put it in front of the repeated combination “or” – that is, no, firstly, it is better not to show off, and secondly, information also rusts from long-term disuse. And if before I had tried to remember the rules, I would have been afraid to be considered illiterate, but now it is absolutely beautiful: you write without any punctuation – and it’s great. This means that you are a modern person, not an Old Testament-literate grandmother. And your views are as broad as possible: you yourself do not know the rules and do not demand them from others. You signal that you belong: you respect other people’s personal space, respect boundaries and uphold the principle of “everything is possible”, of course, periods at the end of the sentence (and even the word “eat” – you can really suffer seriously for this).
The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the position of the editors.
What are you thinking?
Source: Gazeta
Dolores Johnson is a voice of reason at “Social Bites”. As an opinion writer, she provides her readers with insightful commentary on the most pressing issues of the day. With her well-informed perspectives and clear writing style, Dolores helps readers navigate the complex world of news and politics, providing a balanced and thoughtful view on the most important topics of the moment.