Ponderings of the Exclamation Point in Modern Society

Have you noticed that exclamation points seem to be becoming 'trendy' in modern communication? They are everywhere! (see?) An exclamation point is used to communicate a person is exceedingly [insert feeling here]. It's like saying AF without using language deemed vulgar by society.

As a result, exclamation points have been somewhat less effective for some people, in my estimation. I sometimes think to myself, "Was there really a need to use an exclamation point there? What did you achieve? Calm down. You are annoying yourself. If you keep using them so 'willy-nilly' the person on the other end will never take you seriously when you really do need to exclaim something." God forbid.

There are also days when I think, "I'm going all out today so I'm passing it on by flowering the world with exclamation points!" That sometimes leads me to feel that if I am not feeling exclamatory one day in the future, I might let people down by my lack of exclamation points. Consider this my exclamation pointless pre-apology. Don't take it personally, its me, not you.

Exclamation points have also created more work for us because of IEP (Imposter Exclamation Points). I just made that up. The other person might use an exclamation point to merely 'appear' a certain way - an IEP. The receiver may have to re-read the text or email or message several times to analyze what was meant by that little line with a dot at the end. This is a good time to not assume. Or assume the best and not the worst. It can easily deteriorate from there.

!!

#exclamation