Kenneth: I like how you can use line breaks in im conversations to represent several different punctuation marks
Kenneth: we can use them in place of periods
Kenneth: other times
Kenneth: we use them in place of commas
Kenneth: or we can use them
Kenneth: for dramatic pause
Kenneth: in that case, they don't necessarily correspond to any punctuation mark
Kenneth: at all
Kenneth: and yet, that had a slightly different effect than if I had just written:
Kenneth: or we can use them for dramatic pause
Kenneth: it's a bit different even when replacing a comma. consider:
Kenneth: and yet
Kenneth: that had a slightly different etc.
Kenneth: that feels different from the comma version
Kenneth: what's interesting, too, is that it can't just be a line break
Kenneth: it has to be a "new IM", which is subtly different from hitting ctrl-enter to get a new line. this just wouldn't be right:
Kenneth: or we can use them
for dramatic pause
Kenneth: what I find fascinating about it is that it's different from anything in normal written prose. instead, it comes from the rhythm of conversation, which is what IM is meant to replace.
Kenneth: actually, the closest written analog would probably be line breaks in poetry or songwriting