- Never using a period at the end of a complete thought
Imagine having a conversation without taking a breath. Exhausting, right? Society has deemed period usage inappropriate and unnecessary for the casual medium of texting. There’s a fine line between writing a perfect essay and being clear with your words. Although I sometimes don’t use periods myself, I don’t understand why occasional proper punctuation is condemned. It only makes comprehension faster and easier.
- Waiting a specific amount of time to reply
Last weekend, I was having a conversation over text with a boy I had met briefly while out with friends. Every time I replied, he waited exactly 20 minutes to respond. I’m the type of person who responds as soon as I see (or feel) the text, so my friend had to restrain me. She told me to wait as long as he took plus-five or plus-10 minutes. Apparently, I didn’t want to seem desperate. I understand not wanting to seem like I’d been waiting for his messages, but why is it wrong to be excited to talk to him?
- Responding with only a single word
There’s nothing worse than the dreaded k in response to a question that requires more information. In a face-to-face conversation, elaboration is natural, questions fly and detectable emotion is key. I realize that at times, a single word answer is appropriate for a simple yes-or-no question; however, some people make a habit of autopilot texting. Instead of carefully reading the text, they skim it and respond lazily. I thought texting appropriately was already lazy enough.
- Not having correct grammar or spelling (even with autocorrect!)
As a potential English major, I admit that I’m quite the grammar Nazi. The difference between your and you’re is more crucial than you think. In all seriousness, I’m shocked at people whose messages are laced with easily fixable mistakes. Autocorrect picks up simple errors, such as the differences between they’re, their and there. The words must be so incoherent that they can’t be detected. Sleep texter, anyone?
- Having too many or too little emojis
On multiple occasions, my friends have compared me to a middle schooler for my abuse of emojis. Because I’m an expressive person and want to make my intentions clear over text, I often use more than a few emojis at the end of a message. Other times, I don’t use them at all, and people misconstrue what I’m trying to say. The happy medium is a single emoji, but beware, using one in successive messages is also deemed unacceptable.
Contact Emily Schmidt at egs1997 ‘at’ stanford.edu.