• Baron Von J@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    and my dad replies, “Great.” That looks passive aggressive

    What about it makes it look passive aggressive? How would excluding punctuation make it not look passive aggressive?

    • osaerisxero@kbin.melroy.org
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      1 day ago

      It’s the explicit inclusion of period where ‘normally’ there wouldn’t be one. In texting or DMs it would normally be assumed that one-liners wouldn’t contain punctuation except to enhance effect, so the inclusion of the full stop is being read as a 😐 or exaggerated neutrality

      • Baron Von J@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        It’s the explicit inclusion of period where ‘normally’ there wouldn’t be one.

        But given the larger history of textual communication, full punctuation is normal. Texting isn’t charged per character so it’s not like there’s a benefit to leaving it out.

        • ApollosArrow@lemmy.world
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          2 hours ago

          Texting used to be done with a number pad, so going as far as adding a period used to be a statement. Obviously we all have keyboards now, but I’m sure some of that still translates over to today.

          • Baron Von J@lemmy.world
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            2 hours ago

            Fair point, for T9 typing I can see that. I wouldn’t expect millennials and zennials to have dealt with T9 much, though.

        • osaerisxero@kbin.melroy.org
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          18 hours ago

          Texting isn’t charged per character anymore, and only in most places most of the time. And those habits may still persist in other places. My manner of ‘speech’ is very different in front of a keyboard vs on a phone, for instance.

        • Phoeniqz@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          23 hours ago

          Leaving out unnecessary characters makes you type faster, that’s also why people write u instead of you sometimes

            • Phoeniqz@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              2 hours ago

              Well you’re used to writing “you” instead of “u” while texting (for the record, I also always write “you”). Similiarly, a lot of people (namely those who grew up with phones), are used to omitting full stops at the end of a message, so if someone does it it must be a conscious decision. See where I’m going with this? (Also it’s not like people who use them are immediately sounding passive-aggressive, context matters)

            • tal@lemmy.today
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              17 hours ago

              I use Anysoft Keyboard on Android, and it has a toggle for that behavior, which I have off. I don’t know which software keyboard you’re using, but you might check whether it has such a toggle.

          • Baron Von J@lemmy.world
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            19 hours ago

            If poetry text
            Is how you commune with friends
            Passive aggressive.

            edit: fixed the formatting, and my keyboard unironically took my double-tap on space to add periods for me! 😅

      • mesa@piefed.social
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        23 hours ago

        I don’t know anything about texting then. I would have been happy they responded.

    • TheRealKuni@piefed.social
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      1 day ago

      What about it makes it look passive aggressive?

      Good question!

      As I explained later in the post, “Great.” looks like sarcasm. My brain interprets it as having a sarcastic tone, and thus being passive aggressive.

      (I am not alone in this, hence the very thing we’re commenting on.)

      How would excluding punctuation make it not look passive aggressive?

      You might as well ask why tone of voice changes the way we interpret things. Written short-form communication has evolved cultural norms that some people understand better than others, just like spoken communication. Chalk my tone interpretation up to an adolescence spent on IRC.

      My point is that the full stop being passive aggressive is contextual. None of my uses of it here are intended to portray passive aggression or sarcasm, and if I wanted to do that I would not only change my sentence length and structure, but also my vocabulary.

      But of course these norms aren’t as readily understood as actual tone of voice, which is why things like “/s” can be useful.

      • Baron Von J@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        First off, thanks for humoring me.

        As I explained later in the post, “Great.” looks like sarcasm. My brain interprets it as having a sarcastic tone, and thus being passive aggressive. (I am not alone in this, hence the very thing we’re commenting on.)

        I get that it’s a common interpretation amongst a demographic.

        You might as well ask why tone of voice changes the way we interpret things

        Eh, vocal changes carry actual physical changes in the sound waves which non-hearing-impaired persons can perceive, so I don’t quite think it’s an apt comparison. But I understand your intent in doing so.

        But of course these norms aren’t as readily understood as actual tone of voice, which is why things like “/s” can be useful.

        Precisely why it seems odd to me to interpret the use of the basic of punctuation whose literary meaning hasn’t ever carried an absence of express indicator of emotional intent to be negative.

        Again, thanks for engaging with me on it, even though I still don’t get it.

        • Zerot@fedia.io
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          1 day ago

          I think it is because short form texts like IMs/SMS/irc are more like spoken language than written language. And if somebody talks to you and ends a sentence with “period”, the meaning/feeling of the sentence changes.

          • Baron Von J@lemmy.world
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            19 hours ago

            I can see how someone literally putting the word “period” at the of a sentence gives it a certain tone. But the meaning of a period is that the sentence is ended.

          • sem@piefed.blahaj.zone
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            22 hours ago

            It also depends so much on context. My dad texting “Great.” in that text would be different than me texting my work friend:

            Them: Paul called out again

            Me: great.

    • mech@feddit.org
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      1 day ago

      In my mind, the full stop “sounds” like dropping the voice at the end, like you do at the end of a sentence.
      And in speech, dropping the voice at the end of “Great” would sound sarcastic.

      Whereas an exclamation mark “sounds” high-pitched and excited.

      And no punctuation is so normal in text that my mind “adds” the expected sign at the end, which after “Great” would be an exclamation mark.

      It’s really hard to explain, I hope I’m making sense.

      • [deleted]@piefed.world
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        21 hours ago

        I would be far more likely to interpret someone I didn’t know who texted great without a period to be sarcastic.

        It seems like deviation from their normal pattern would have some meaning, but without context all of these could be read as sarcastic depending on what kind of reaction someone might be expecting.

        great

        great.

        great!

    • cv_octavio@piefed.ca
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      17 hours ago

      The fact that their dad was (possibly?) raised in an era when children were taught to read and write correctly is what makes it passive aggressive…

      and just laziness inculcated by Internet/mobile/meme culture.