Member-only story
Do We Even Still Need the Question Mark
The question-without-a-question-mark conveys its own meaning
Is a question without a question mark still a question?
I ask because more and more of the questions I see — and ask — online have started to drop the very thing that defined them as such.
For example:
What’s going on with this weather
Is that a thing now
What does he want
This is not an oversight. The question-without-a-question-mark conveys its own meaning. It can be droll or sarcastic. It’s the roll of the eyes and the shrug of a club comic. It can be rhetorical, a statement that requires no answer.
That, perhaps, is the problem we’re discovering with the question mark. Sometimes when we ask questions, we’re not actually looking for answers. It’s an invitation, when really we don’t want to dance.
At a time rich in internet pedantry and unsolicited mansplaining, a question can be a trap. Imagine if, when you asked, “What’s going on with this weather?” you received a 2,000-word reply linking to 16 scientific reports on shifting international climate trends. The internet is killing the rhetorical question, amirite?
