Is comma use changing? (For the worse, naturally)

[J. L. Holtz]

There was a study done at an University in the US, that used 10 sentences, having editors place all the punctuation marks and arrange the paragraph structure. With the results being, that they were all correct, all 750 of them. And none of them were the same.

Punctuation and grammar is ever-evolving, especially since the advent of the computer and mass advertising. I would not be a writer today without my computer, and could not even imagine writing a full novel completely on paper as all the great masters did.

Language is becoming more conceptual in nature. That brings to the question, what really is correct now? Because with advertising and social media, all the rules have been thrown out the window. Civilization is taking its next step in the evolution, leaving the past behind. Like math, the math I learned does not even resemble the math my grandchildren are learning, the same goes for how they are learning to writing. They know font, not cursive, and punctuate completely different than I was taught.

 

[HareBrain]

and punctuate completely different than I was taught.

But are they doing that thinkingly ("what purpose does that comma serve there?") or just because they've picked it up from somewhere?

BTW, I've been reading a Thomas Hardy book recently, written in the 1870s, and I've found a few of his sentences punctuated in the same way as I illustrated in my opening post. The particular edition of the book is based on his handwritten manuscript rather then any published version, so it might be these were mistakes he would have corrected in the proofs, but maybe not.