You must have received at least one message in your life where the sender adds an enormous amount of questions marks to the end of the sentence.
Haven't you???
See how that made you feel? Like it's your fault that you have or have not received this type of message.
A particularly frightening message, is the one where the sender alternates between question marks and exclamation marks.
Have you ever received one of those?!?!
It immediately throws me into a spiral of self-doubt, self-questioning and debilitating anxiety.
As if the number of indicators at the end of your message will afford me the opportunity to answer faster, reach through the atmosphere and via some soul connection immediately understand how unhappy you are or, better yet, give me some super power where I can magically wave a wand and take away all the problems you are currently facing.
For a complete meltdown, send me a message that is typed out ALL IN UPPER CAPPS.
I MEAN, REALLY?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! I CAN ALMOST HEAR THE TAP, TAP, TAPPING OF YOUR INDEX FINGER SLAMMING AWAY ON THE TINY LITTLE BUTTON ON YOUR PHONE OR PC!!!
Dear God, give me strength.
Inappropriate use of question marks, exclamations marks and upper caps should become a crime punishable by devices that have had the relevant buttons removed from the keyboard.
HOW WOULD YOU LIKE THAT?!?!
It's not cool to over-use these tools in the same way that it's not cool for radio stations to over-play a song. It's just irritating and if you find yourself receiving an unpleasant response, then check your usage of the above. You may very well have started it!
Sadly, I have found myself emulating these habits so I apologise to anyone who has ever received a message like this from me. I'm trying to change but habits are difficult to break. I need a full 21 days of sending normal, unemotional messages to break the curse. Be patient with me, please. We learn from each other so I can only blame my network. Like a dose of flu when winter approaches, this stuff is contagious!
Communication and the way we communicate has changed so drastically over the past few years. I'm sure all of us are just trying our best to keep up and stay on top of the SMSes, emails, Facebook Inbox Messages, WhatsApp group chats, Snapchat feeds et al.
But let's not forget that upper caps are for the beginning of sentences. One question mark is sufficient to ask a question and one exclamation mark will do just fine when making a strong statement.
We don't want to run out, so let's be wise and save some of those upper caps, questions marks and exclamation marks for future use.