Using This Punctuation Mark May Reveal Your Age, Experts Say

Person typing on a keyboardMost of us are familiar with “Boomer ellipses,” or the ominous ”...” some texters use in place of a full stop or comma. Even double spacing can reveal your age; older typists prefer it, especially following a full stop, though even the staunchest defender of that grammar rule (style guide APA) conceded defeat in 2019. Speaking to HuffPost UK, language learning platform Babbel says that after pairing with the London Student Network, they found another potential generational divide. “Our findings reveal that the semicolon is an ‘endangered’ punctuation mark - abandoned by many British writers who might have been expected to showcase its value, and often misunderstood by younger generations,” they said.Gen Z seem to have abandoned the ;Renaissance printer and typographer Aldus Manutius invented the semicolon mark in the 15th century; it appeared for the first time in 1494 in Manutius’s De Aetna.It was meant to show a pause slightly longer than a comma but shorter than a short stop. Using Google Ngram Viewer, a tool developed with Harvard University to spot writing patterns over time, Babbel found that in 1781, the semicolon appeared once every 90 written words. By 2005, it was down to one semicolon every 205 words. In 2022, it was once every 390 words; a 47% decrease between 2000 and 2022 alone.“There’s definitely a generational shift at play,” linguistic and cultural expert at Babbel, Sofia Zambelli, tells HuffPost UK. “According to our research, over half (54%) of young Britons admit they don’t know the rules for using semicolons, and fewer than one in three use them at all.”So, the linguist says, “While it’s not a perfect litmus test, using a semicolon correctly or at all often correlates with age... Older generations, or those who grew up reading and writing longer-form texts, where semicolons were a stylistic staple, tend to use them more naturally.” She adds, “Since around the year 2000, which is roughly when Gen Z was born, semicolon use in books has dropped significantly.” 28% of younger people reported never using a semicolon at all. 39% said they rarely used them.Only 11% of young people described themselves as regular semicolon users. There’s still hope for the sinking semicolon Zambelli tells us that even though they might not use it very often, Gen Z still see the value in the semicolon. “From our research, Gen Z’s struggle with the semicolon clearly comes from a lack of confidence, rather than a rejection,” she shares. 67% of Gen Z say they see the value in the punctuation mark, despite not being inclined to use it often.“That gap between perceived value and actual usage points to confusion rather than disinterest.” Still, Zambelli warns, the trend could be part of a vicious cycle. “The less you see something used correctly, the less likely you are to instinctively understand how it works – a vicious cycle of sorts.“If that trend continues, we could expect future generations to feel even less familiar with the semicolon – not because it has fallen out of favour, but because it has simply faded from view.” Related...'Nothing Says Over 50' Like Following This 1 Grammar Rule, Experts SayHere's Why Boomers Keep Using Ellipses In Text (And Why It Makes You Panic)What You Call This Time May Reveal Your Age, Language Expert Says

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