Yes, so why should they be dragged out and blatantly abused just so you can make a point? Who are they? Punctuation marks. Why use three, four, or even seventeen exclamation marks or question marks when just one, or even a question mark tastefully combined with an exclamation mark will do?
Sometimes, when the user is especially excited, another innocent party is pulled into the fracas, one whose only mistake was being located below the abused exclamation mark.
E.g: "OMFG, U R teh r0x0rz!!!!1!!"
Right there, amidst the exclamation marks, is a 1. 1 is NOT a punctuation mark. It is a number. Adding a 1 to your sentence does not make it more exciting or pertinent, no matter what your aesthetic sense might suggest. Nor does it give your sentence more value. Even mathematically, it doesn't work that way.
While we're on the subject of punctuation, let's take a look at the horrendous misuse of capitalization. People who capitalize alternate letters lIkE tHiS either have too much time on their hands or are looking for attention whilst trying to be cute. It makes me nauseous looking at text that bobs up and down like an infinite sine curve. Might I also point out it serves no purpose and detracts depth from whatever you're trying to say because regardless of what the message actually is, it just comes out twee (to put that in the local context, ACBC)?
And no, you should not replace "you"s and "are"s with Us and Rs. Nor yours with urs. How much longer does it take to type out two additional letters, really? Unless you've got only two fingers in total (and even the handicapped use complete words, I think!) and/or are illiterate, do not abbreviate words that are already short. And shortening "anyone" to NE1 is just asking for the Spelling Nazis to systematically bayonet you to death. I would welcome a holocaust of that nature and honestly think it takes more time to think up these pseudo-humourous spellings than to actually type the word in question out.
I'm not a spelling Nazi. I don't insist you spell every word correctly, but I loathe the deliberate misspelling of common words. Yes. LOATHE. That's hate to the power of 10.
So join me in my umbrage against the misuse of punctuation and spelling. Let us create a world where punctuation marks can live in peace and harmony with righteous spelling.
And while we're at it, perhaps we could convince certain MSN users to stop replacing their letters with grotequely out of shape animated gifs. Smileys are like punctuation... too much is too much. I don't really need every sentence punctuated with a wiggling exclamation mark(), or ever "" in each word flashing like some seed neon sign. It makes your already butchered sentences harder to read.
If you want to make a point on your blog, use the bold or italics or even the underline tags. Change the freaking font size or colour if you must. Just please stop abusing the punctuation marks. When chatting, the humble asterisk will do just fine in emphasizing your words. Even CAPSLOCK is better than twenty-two exclamation marks. And lastly, alternate capitalization of letters is not your friend. It slows you down. Even if you're creating short, bastardized versions of all your words.
And if you've taken my suggestions to heart and have amended accordingly, I thank you for my peace of mind. Really, it's not too much to ask.
