Technology is changing the way we use punctuation.

Text messages punctuated with a period, for example, are more likely to communicate “insincerity” over messages that do not, according to the results of Binghamton University’s recently published research.

The team of researchers at Binghamton University recruited one hundred and twenty-six undergraduates to read a series of sixteen exchanges—either as text messages or handwritten notes—and found that participants rated text messages that ended with a period as less sincere than those that did not.

“Texting is lacking in many of the social cues used in actual face-to-face conversations,” said Celia Klin, an associate professor of psychology who led the research team. “When speaking, people easily convey social and emotional information with eye gaze, facial expressions, tone of voice, pauses, and so on. People obviously can’t use these mechanisms when they are texting. Thus it makes sense that texters rely on what they have available to them—emoticons, deliberate misspellings that mimic speech sounds, and, according to our data, punctuation.”

David Crystal, an independent linguist and author who advocates “pragmatic tolerance” told the New Yorker that such “innovation” in language shouldn’t come as a surprise.

“The big thing about language is that it always changes. Since the Internet came along, it has never moved so fast.”

Daniel Donoghue, who teaches a class on the history of English at Harvard, is also unconcerned, particularly in an age of “moral panic” over punctuation misuse (or lack thereof).

“Because of code-switching, I’m not so concerned that the Internet will destroy civilized communication as we know it,” he said. “It certainly doesn’t have to become the angel of destruction if those of us charged with teaching how to use language, including parents, do our jobs.”

The Binghamton University study may have only confirmed what some already knew. “People probably just find line breaks more efficient,” writer Ben Crair said, discussing the angry period and other punctuation-related tonal shifts in the New Republic in 2013. Crair cites an American University study of college students’ texting and instant messaging habits from 2007 that found students only used sentence-final punctuation 39% of the time. Crair hypothesized, “The same is likely true of Twitter, where the 140-character limit has made most punctuation seem dispensable.”

Further Reading: Matthew J.X. Malady in 2013, writing for Slate, talked with Choire Sicha—the writer, editor, and co-founder of The Awl—about the shifting use of ellipses and other marks in text messages.

Image Credit: Man Repeller.