Here's why you should never use full stops in your texts, according to science

Here's why you should never use full stops in your texts, according to science

Research shows the full stop can change the meaning of a text

The incident has escalated into an argument

Dropping a full stop at the end of your sentences might not be the best idea when it comes to texting your friends.

According to new research from a US university, punctuation in text messages is what's known as a "textism" - or a way to replicate the emotion usually conveyed in facial expressions when you're chatting with someone IRL.

Professor of Psychology Celia Klin from Binghamton University in New York led a study in 2016 to find out how punctuation was interpreted.

"In formal writing, such as what you'd find in a novel or an essay, the period is almost always used grammatically to indicate that a sentence is complete. With texts, we found that the period can also be used rhetorically to add meaning," said Klin.

"We concluded that although periods no doubt can serve a grammatical function in texts just as they can with more formal writing -- for example, when a period is at the end of a sentence -- periods can also serve as textisms, changing the meaning of the text."

"We read text messages in a slightly different way than we read a novel or an essay. Further, all the elements of our texts -- the punctuation we choose, the way that words are spelled, a smiley face -- can change the meaning. The hope, of course, is that the meaning that is understood is the one we intended.

"Certainly, it's not uncommon for those of us in the lab to take an extra second or two before we send texts. We wonder: How might this be interpreted? 'Hmmm, period or no period? That sounds a little harsh; maybe I should soften it with a "lol" or a winky-face-tongue-out emoji.'"

The team believe that more study should be conducted into the way we communicate in messages. Which, given that humans send trillions of text messages each year, seems sensible.

But maybe you should stop and think before you fire off the next message to your nearest and dearest.