Punctuation abuses

Reading the handouts of monetary policy, I noted that my teacher has the same tendency that I had when I was writing my paper. My colleagues noted that I used the semicolon for a countless number of times. Same with those notes written by my teacher. By reading them, I noticed how long the sentences were. I wonder if our italian origin make us use that mark so much.

I was then thinking how much the punctuation in a written message changes the impression that the reader gets.
I have noticed this especially by reading sms.

Ciao! = the person is enthusiastic /happy/ would like to see you or tell you the last happenings. On the other hand, too many exclamation marks make the messages become slicky.

Ciao. = the person is not in the mood to send you a sms, but she has to because of the circumstances / the person is in a bad mood. The fullstop might seem a bit strict in sms, but let's not forget that it does not leave anything unclear.

Ciao... = the person cannot decide and you have to guess her state of mind. Usually her/his message goes on: "...if you want....i am going downtown..../ i am downtown...."
When I get these message I always wonder if the person would like to see me downtown or then if she/he just wants to let me know that she is going there and maybe something is going to happen. The abuse of ....... is probably the most irritating that there can be because it is ment to keep the suspence, but it is just a matter of fashionable punctuation (especially among teenagers or among "seasoned people"). I usually prefer to think that the phone has a chicken pox.

The best messages are those written by my grandma: no punctuation at all, because I haven't taught her to use all the buttons of her cellphone.