Above the law
Slow down for us because we're not wearing a safety helmet! A reader writes: "Auckland Transport has good intentions with these new signs on Waiheke Island ... But last time I looked it's the law to wear a safety helmet. Oh and it saves your head when someone doesn't slow down for you."
Texts with tone
A full stop at the end of your text doesn't show your good education or pedantry, it shows you are cold and rude. According to the Washington Post, researchers at Binghampton University asked undergraduates to rate a series of sample messages, including texts and handwritten notes. They judged each tone depending on the context of the message. Text messages featuring full stops were deemed to be "insincere". Apparently, the speed of response and the fact that the conversation is always ongoing means that texts are closer in nature to face-to-face speech. This means certain cues normal in most forms of writing, like full stops at the ends of sentences, seem sarcastic or rude in text messages. "Texting is lacking many of the social cues used in actual face-to-face conversations. When speaking, people easily convey social and emotional information with eye gaze, facial expressions, tone of voice, pauses and so on," researcher Celia Klin explained. "People obviously can't use these mechanisms when they are texting. Thus, it makes sense that texters rely on what they have available to them - emoticons, deliberate misspellings that mimic speech sounds and, according to our data, punctuation."
