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What: “why typing like this is sometimes okay,” a fascinating examination of how digital communication has evolved language.
Who: Ever-curious, popular YouTube explainer guy Tom Scott.
Why we care: I can’t remember when it started, but at some point I internalized the idea that not including an exclamation point at the end of certain text messages meant that you’re mad at someone. It was possibly the first time my wife asked “Are you mad at me?” when I responded to a request with an apparently unemphatic “Okay.” Now I fling those exclamation marks around with abandon to let everybody know that not only will I meet them at Sweetgreen at 1:30 p.m., I am friggin’ stoked about it. Somehow, I never really examined this tendency of mine and likely many other people, or what it might mean, at least not until I watched “why typing like this is sometimes okay.”
