In this era, there are many forms of digital communication available that people can use. Twitter, Facebook and email are just a few examples; however, the most frequently used digital communication mode has to be SMS. The number of cell phone owners texting grew from 58 percent in 2007 to 80 percent in 2012. Additionally, the number of text messages sent monthly in the United States exploded from 14 billion in 2000 to 188 billion in 2010, according to the Pew Institute. survey. Consequently, this essay will focus carefully on social attitudes towards how texting affects the English language. A very common feature of SMS is the use of emoticons. Emoticons are also widely used in other forms of digital communication. As icons that show facial expressions, they are extremely useful for conveying the tone of the message being sent. For example: "What happened?" :o', it shows that the writer is surprised or shocked. Instead the same message with a different emoticon: "What happened?" ;-)' completely changes the context of the sentence. In this case the writer asks the question in a joking way, perhaps with a slight insinuation. Many people use emoticons to give their messages more warmth and a personal touch, as texting is generally considered a cold and distant way of communicating. They also help clarify the meaning behind a text. Without paralinguistic cues such as tone of voice, expressions, and body language present to indicate the seriousness of the words, it can be very easy to misinterpret a message. Emoticons clarify any doubts and vagueness. However, others argue that they look childish and unprofessional to adults. Emoticons are inappropriate when used with unknown people or with a person who has... the middle of the paper... punctuation to their advantage. By using lots of question marks and exclamation marks, they can correctly convey what the tone of their voice would be if they read the text aloud. Excessive use of question marks suggests that the person is very curious and desperate to get an answer (depending on how many there are). Likewise, many exclamation marks suggest excitement, and question marks with exclamation marks (as shown above) signal disbelief. Capital letters increase the effect and suggest a loud exclamation. Don't forget that emoticons are fundamentally and creatively put together by punctuation. The use of non-standard punctuation and capitalization is another example of how young people have managed to make digital communication easy to relate to spoken conversations, however, becoming accustomed to using incorrect punctuation can have a negative impact on school work.