When it comes to general gaps, there is no shortage of the areas it can be seen in – from fashion to political ideologies, from attitude toward various social issues to music, from technology to language and more.
Where the Baby Boomer generation saw the rise of the colour movies, world wars, and more, the Millennial generation saw the birth of the internet, social media, and being digital natives, something that later Gen Z and future generations also became part of.
One could say that the millennials and Gen Z are slightly closer in their way of seeing the world compared to Baby Boomers and this is being seen in the way that they interpret the simple “ellipses”.
Why Is The Innocent Dot Dot Dot Becoming A Rift?
Ellipses are a series of three dots (…) used as a punctuation mark, also called dot-dot-dot and currently, there is a gap between these dots especially in text language.
Gen Z has dubbed them “boomer ellipses” considering Baby Boomers often use them in digital conversations. It has been noticed by Gen Z internet users that Baby Boomers often use ellipses excessively in conversations.
The rift comes in the way these ellipses are interpreted, where for Baby Boomers it can have several meanings like indicating a pause, trailing thought, or even a prompt for the other person to take the conversation ahead, however, for Gen Z and millennials it is being taken differently.
According to reports, Gen Z and millennials feel that ellipses can feel passive-aggressive, indicating awkwardness, hesitation, or even irritation.
Gen Z and millennials are reportedly more keen on straightforward and clear-cut language and believe the ambiguous ellipsis can break the flow of the conversation.
Read More: Are Gen Z And Millennials Fighting On Trivial Issues Like Socks?
It is also assumed that for Baby Boomers, that grew up with more formal writing, ellipses are a way to include that formality even in digital conversations.
Adam Aleksic, an Instagram user, also commented on why boomers use ellipses and Gen Z don’t. He said, “It’s because they (boomers) grew up following different rules for informal communication.
Nowadays, if you want to separate an idea, you just press enter and start a new line with a new thought. But it made less sense for writing postcards or letters where you had to save space. So people back in the day learnt to separate thoughts by using ellipses.”
Aleksic further spoke about how this even stretched to the SMS generation saying, “Same with early SMS texting. You were charged more efficient to charge more ideas within a single text and boomers got used to that.
However, with rise of unlimited texting, it became even more efficient to separate thoughts with different messages, so that became the new grammatical standard online. That means the boomer ellipses became redundant, which is why they cause confusion today.”
Linguist Gretchen McCulloch also commented on this phenomenon saying, “A line break takes up the same amount of code as dot-dot-dot” since there is no longer any limit on space with unlimited texting and social media platforms that charge for every word. So it makes sense for younger generations to just write a new message instead of trying to save space or only use ellipses if it bring meaning to the message.
However, Gen-Z feel that they can be outdated and misinterpreted with many sharing screenshots from conversations with parents and grandparents on social media platforms like X/Twitter, Reddit, TikTok and more to show how these three dots are being perceived.
One user wrote “People back in the day learnt to separate thoughts by using ellipses,” while another questioned, “I don’t understand; why do they need to use three dots to separate thoughts?”
A user on Instagram wrote “My grandmother used a dash between sentences in her letters. It was very confusing. She also had a typewriter that typed in cursive, which was very cool” while another replied, “My boss does this all the time, and I hate it.”
User Francisco Cruz also wrote “I use them as a pause. I also use them to express sadness or disappointment; however, I don’t use them for the second ones as often anymore.”
It is certainly very interesting how the interpretation of common punctuation marks can vary across generations or even different regions and cultures.
Recently, there has also been debate about the use of full stop (.) in online conversations, with some feeling it comes across as too formal or creates distance between the people or even an indirect way to show anger.
Image Credits: Google Images
Feature image designed by Saudamini Seth
Sources: Moneycontrol, Hindustan Times, The Outline
Find the blogger: @chirali_08
This post is tagged under: Conversation, text language, dot dot dot, gen z, millennials, boomers, text language meaning, WhatsApp, WhatsApp conversation, Cultural Clash, ellipses, ellipses meaning, Social media, texting, digital interactions
Disclaimer: We do not hold any right, or copyright over any of the images used, these have been taken from Google. In case of credits or removal, the owner may kindly mail us.
Other Recommendations:
K, Ok, Okay: All OKs Have Different Meanings: Know How To Use Them Here
