Periods, commas, colons, dashes: they seem to work pretty well. I realize that punctuation can help and I try to use it. But I think exclamation points are inadequate. They warn that something is exciting but so do all capital letters. THIS IS IMPORTANT they say but even that needs to end with an exclamation point.
Maybe that helps to explain the rise of emoticons. I don't use them much but I see references to a whole new set of mini-faces, tiny ghosts and other little pictures that one company or another is releasing. Personally, I find the little images too small and too difficult to decipher. I suppose exclamations can be roughly sorted into positive and negatives types and I feel like I can usually tell which types any given picture represents. I like it better if the writer gracefully and succinctly indicates what sort of emotion is being expressed.
I get a little impatient with myself when I post comments on Facebook from so many uses of exclamation points. I often question whether a given phrase should be banged or not. I excuse high use by telling myself it is only to be expected that I dream up some exciting or pseudo-exciting if I am going to publicly comment to a friend. I can get tired of exclaiming but feel a period is not right, so I end with no punctuation.
I am a guy and I have a British Isles background, so I don't go for too much emotion. Still, I don't want to be cold and unfeeling, at least not overly so. I figured that Google Docs and Gmail would have little pictures indicating emotions. I did a search and found these:😰 small blue face with a single tear, 👹 "Japanese ogre" 😒 Unsmiling, rather bored face. There are dozens more. I may start getting more emotional.😇 Smiley face with halo. Look for more "con anima"!
