Why do older people on social media end all their comments with a ton of periods

The ellipsis has a few uses:

  • For showing elision in a quotation
  • For thoughts that stop partway through: "Mostly the ones that just kinda, you know…" (If it stops due to interruption, it uses an em dash instead.)
  • For picking up an unfinished sentence: "…trail off?"
  • For unusually long pauses, especially where a comma would be inappropriate: "That's… really weird."
  • With an exclamation mark, to show a tone of anticipation: "Something big is about to happen…!"
  • Uncommonly, to demonstrate that tone of voice where you speak sorta slowly when feigning agreement or friendliness (and not really hiding it): "Do you like it?" "Yeah, it's… great…"
  • For conveying a tone of uncertainty or of a lack of self-confidence. Like the speaker is afraid to commit to anything, even simple sentences, because they're worried that anything they say will be the wrong thing. (If you're familiar with Undertale, the character Napstablook embodies this perfectly.)

For all but the last, it's usually easy to tell from context that it's being used for that purpose. So if ellipses start showing up in places that don't fit any of those situations, to me it sorta defaults to the last one, which is the "sad" tone your friend mentioned.

A period, on the other hand, is pretty neutral—it only seems curt if you write exclusively in ultra-short sentences. Generally, avoid doing that. It's rarely necessary. It's often awkward. It's sometimes the right choice though. If not, don't use ellipses. Use conjunctions and dashes. String sentences together. If not, don't use ellipses—use conjunctions and dashes, and string sentences together.

/r/NoStupidQuestions Thread