Texting etiquette<\/a> differs with every generation. Gen X and most Millennials<\/a> use fairly proper grammar and punctuation throughout a text message exchange. Every new sentence starts with a capital letter, there are strategically placed Oxford commas to ensure there\u2019s little room for misunderstandings, and sentences end with an appropriate punctuation mark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When it comes to Gen Z, they find that ending text messages with proper punctuation indicates that the person they\u2019re texting is being passive-aggressive<\/a>. They also text in shorthand and emojis that can feel a bit like you need a special decoder ring to decipher the messages. But texting in an encrypted way can be chalked up to youth, though the same can\u2019t be said when it comes to Boomers. Or can it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Harvard linguist and author of the New York Times bestseller Algospeak<\/a>, Adam Aleksic, breaks down why so many Boomers use ellipses when texting<\/a>. It\u2019s surprisingly not as complicated or dramatic as one may imagine. In a viral 2024 TikTok video, Aleksic explains his theory for the texting etiquette of Boomers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou know how older people tend to use the \u2018Boomer ellipses\u2019 whenever they\u2019re texting? There\u2019s always a random \u2018dot dot dot\u2019 in the middle of their messages?\u201d Aleksic asks. \u201cWell, that\u2019s because they 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 to do that for writing postcards or letters, where you had to save space, so people back in the day learned to separate thoughts by using ellipses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Aleksic explains that this is also true for when phones first started allowing text messaging. You were charged by the message, so ellipses made it more efficient to convey all the thoughts in one message instead of multiple ones. SMS texting also had a character limit, unlike current phones, where you can essentially write a novella in a single message without your phone automatically breaking it up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today\u2019s texting standards typically mean people separate their thoughts by sending multiple messages for separate thoughts, though that annoys some people. If separating thoughts means you\u2019ll be sending no less than five texts in quick succession, it\u2019s likely best to just space down to make the text longer, rather than bombarding an unsuspecting friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When it comes down to it, younger generations have adapted to the new standard, embracing the unlimited text option, while Boomers haven\u2019t. Due to this discrepancy in text etiquette, the ellipses used by Boomers throw people for a loop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat means the Boomer ellipses became redundant, which is why they cause confusion today. They violate what we call \u2018the maximum quantity;\u2019 they add more information than necessary, so they appear to imply something more than the intended meaning. Most of the time, that comes off to younger people as hesitation, annoyance, or passive aggressiveness because that\u2019s how we use the ellipses,\u201d the linguist shares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, no, your grandma isn\u2019t mad at you or avoiding telling you something; according to Aleksic, she\u2019s just trying to send you multiple messages in one. There\u2019s no hidden emotion behind the ellipses for Boomers; it\u2019s simply a habit left over from their younger years<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you\u2019ve ever gotten a text from your mom or grandma full of \u201c\u2026\u201d and had no idea what it meant, you\u2019re not alone. One<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/682871269_1443019197859067_5346081680709017390_n.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7997"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7999,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7997\/revisions\/7999"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How each generation texts differently<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
![\"linguist;](\"https:\/\/www.upworthy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/01\/origin-13.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe pay-per-text era that changed everything<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Why the boomer ellipsis causes so much confusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n