Katy Steinmetz, “You’re Using Exclamation Points Too Much! Here’s How to Stop” (Time, July 2, 2014)
This universal barrage has, in turn, muted the mark’s ability to powerfully exclaim, as a joke’s hilarity wanes when told over and over and over. “There’s been a dilution of its power through greater use,” says linguist Ben Zimmer, executive producer of Vocabulary.com.
That dilution, Zimmer notes, has come with the rise of electronic communication, where we struggle to convey all the things that our voice and face can.
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