VOX POPULI: Young texters have rendered punctuation marks obsolete

If punctuation marks could speak, they might remonstrate us, “How could you do this to us now, after using us all the time?”

Young Japanese today are said to feel that use of the “full stop” punctuation mark--or “maru” in Japanese--makes social media posts come across as “aloof” or “unsympathetic” in tone.

In fact, young netizens recently decried the use of the period as “maru harassment.”

An example cited was a post that said “Daijobu desu” (literally, “It’s OK”) with a maru.

I am in my 50s. I checked my cellphone’s history and confirmed that I have always used punctuation in all my texts as a matter of course, including those sent to young people.

But not one text I’d received from them was punctuated.

With a jolt, I saw this for what it is--a generation gap.

Wondering if this “no punctuation” phenomenon is peculiar to Japan, I asked my friends in Europe, Southeast Asia and South America.

Apparently, the trend is common in various languages around the world.

A British woman in her 20s said, “Punctuation is not needed in message balloons. The ‘send’ button serves as the full stop.”

And just as in Japan, the period is disdained as giving off an uncaring, authoritarian and grumpy vibe.

Many people end their messages with no period or a dash, she said.

She also told me that while she and most of her contemporaries in their 20s think favorably of the exclamation mark at the end of a message, that is not the case with teenagers, who dislike it as being “coercive.”

As for writing formal emails or responding to messages from her superiors at work, she uses punctuation as an indication of seriousness and formality, she said.

In “Kutoten Omoshiro Jiten” (Fun facts about punctuation) by Masatoshi Orui, I came across an interesting anecdote from about half a century ago.

A well-known Japanese language scholar argued that it is rude to use punctuation in a letter to one’s superior, as this is tantamount to being condescending to the recipient by making the letter easier to understand.

I began to feel sorry for punctuation marks for being subjected to praise and censure, for promoting good manners on the one hand and aiding bad manners on the other.

But since I rely on them every day, I vow to keep using them as I always have. Period.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 16

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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