Exclamation Marks! Lots of them!

Much more consideration is given to interrobangs.

Maybe it’s Morse?

Are sure they aren’t factorials? (Double factorial is a thing Double factorial - Wikipedia)

Brian

It’s deliberate! I mean, of course I made gentle fun of this habit! Wouldn’t you?! Yes!

Answer? People like the exclamation marks!!!

Is that something necrophiliacs do?

At least they aren’t using emoji-based exclamation marks :exclamation::exclamation::exclamation: But could it get worse :question::question::question: It could :heavy_heart_exclamation::heavy_heart_exclamation::heavy_heart_exclamation:

I do believe that over-utilization of exclamation marks is just another symptom of living in an internet world, an increasingly fast and loose society where getting your point across as quickly as possible is the primary goal. Flowing prose and proper grammar are antiquated relics of the pre-internet age. It’s jarring for those of us who grew up in the days of snail mail, but necessary if you wish to be listened to.

In the world of websites, email and social media, if your message doesn’t load and grab attention within ~3 seconds, you get clicked away. Corn-fielded. Tomorrow it will be 2 seconds; 1 second the day after…

Consider love letters. As a young person, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I wrote and received long, flowing love letters with decorative prose and conservative punctuation (perhaps one exclamation mark per letter, e.g. “my heart yearns to beat near yours!”), written longhand with proper grammar. If I felt particularly romantic, perhaps I would include a sketch of two hearts entwined before a sunrise, or some such insipid dreck. And, compared to letters from bygone centuries, these would be considered brief and boring.

Decades later, after divorce and now living in an internet world, I decided to take the plunge and try online dating (I enjoy the company of my cats, but one can’t thrive on feline love alone). I quickly learned that the new “love letter style” is more along the lines of wham bam, thank you ma’am—short correspondences sprinkled with “lols”, copious abbreviations, sloppy grammar and genital pics selfies.

Don’t fight the new way of speed writing. It’s only going to get worse.

There’s a loudmouth in every group! Lol. :grinning:

Hey! It’s Mr. Musk! Glad you could make it!