A recent podcast , ( “You Should Watch the Way You Punctuate Your Text Messages–Period”), on NPR’s “All  Tech Considered” [Dec 20, 2015] discusses how text messages are more like “conversations” and, therefore, are interpreted differently than a handwritten note.  Based on a study by researchers at Binghamton University, readers’ interpretations of sincerity in text messages vary, even to the difference between using “periods” (full stops) versus “exclamation points.”  This study gives us something interesting to consider about the power of punctuation as we try to interpret often cryptic and compact text communications from friends and colleagues!