There is something deeply unsettling about receiving a text that ends with a period.

“Ok.”

That tiny dot. So final, so dismissive. It feels like a mini digital dagger. Is this person annoyed? Did I do something wrong? In today’s online-centric world ruled by emojis, exclamation points and lack of auto-capitalization, the period has taken on a surprisingly harsh tone.

So, what’s being done to soften the blow that proper punctuation has brought to online communication?

It’s called the “punctuation cushion,” a linguistic phenomenon where a space is added between the end of a sentence and the punctuation (like this !). This small pause for breathing room between words and punctuation is meant to soften the tone of a message and make it easier to receive.

If you’ve spent as much time doomscrolling on Twitter as I have, you would know that proper punctuation and grammar are not the standard on social media. Character limits and short attention spans leave full words and sentences cut, abbreviated and molded into a whole new language that older generations (and admittedly, me) can’t even begin to understand.

Before full words were mutilated into digital slop, punctuation took the initial hit. 

But why? Where did this texting trend come from? What caused punctuation to be perceived as an aggressive ending to a sentence?

The use of a space before punctuation like question marks and exclamation points is not a new concept. This is a feature of modern French grammar rules that is thought to have originated from using typewriters. Since some punctuation marks were typed by combining two different symbols, typewriters were designed so users could hold the space bar while typing punctuation, creating a gap between the sentence and the mark.

Unsurprisingly, English grammar rules strayed from this practice and developed their own typographical rules not including the space.

In an in-person conversation, we rely on vocal inflections, body language and facial expressions to interpret tone. But online, we don’t have those cues, leaving us to decipher meaning from text alone.

DePaul junior Lauren Hunder thinks the punctuation cushion is helpful in conveying a light-hearted tone. She uses it with exclamation points to “seem a bit friendlier.”

“Sometimes I overthink the text messages I get,” Hunder said. “If there’s not a lot of exclamation points, I’m like, ‘OK, they hate me.’”

My initial reaction to a text message not riddled with exclamation points is also to over-think it. There’s a feeling of finality or coldness in messages online or over text with periods marking the end of each sentence. An exclamation point tells me the sender is enthusiastic to communicate with me.

“It almost feels too professional,” Hunder said.

For one, Gen Z and Millennials generally don’t communicate formally online.

Texting is an informal kind of communication, so most of the time punctuation is omitted since it doesn’t serve a necessary purpose. The text alone is its own thought. By adding a period to the end of a sentence, you’re breaking an ironclad digital rule of this informal code, making your punctuation stand out and cause the recipient to wonder why it was used in the first place.

Samantha Close, an associate professor of communication at DePaul and social media expert, says social media also has played a role in forming our obsession with — and fear of — punctuation. She notes that since forms of communication have evolved, methods like writing letters and emails took on a more formal tone.

“Tone on platforms like Twitter and Instagram is much more likely to be sarcastic or ironic than in emails,” Close said.

When I’m texting, I’m constantly thinking about how my tone is coming across. My use of grammar and punctuation vary depending on who I’m talking to. When it’s someone my age, I’m expecting a more casual exchange compared to someone I have a professional relationship with. But every so often, I’ll get a text from a fellow Gen Zer that’s formatted like an email, and I have to completely rethink my course of action.

This is not to say the use of proper grammar is a crime. Well, unless you want to fit in.

“I feel like Gen Z has very strict online rules,” Hunder said. “Like the crying laughing emoji, that used to be the emoji that everybody used.”

Now, she noted, most people just use the crying or skull emojis, and the use of the crying laughing one acts as a target on their back for being out of touch.

At the end of the day, your use of emojis, punctuation and proper grammar don’t need to be completely thrown away. But in a world where tone can be lost in translation, adapting to the unwritten norms of digital spaces can carry a lot of weight. 

Maybe all that means is adding a little space to breathe between the end of a sentence and your punctuation !

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