I have a bunch of habits I don't like with how I respond to things said to me verbally.
For the longest time I thought I had bad hearing, always asking people to repeat things. At some point in the past few years I actuality started introspecting and realized that most of the time I have answers prepared by the time they're done repeating themselves. My hearing is fine, but I have abnormally poor language processing.
Often I react to things by intentionally misinterpreting in an innocuous way, things like that. I never really liked it but pretended it wasn't a thing. It's a subconsciously developed strategy for buying time. Also why I handle talking one-on-one much better than groups, once two people start talking to each other I get too far behind the conversation and keep thinking of the things I would have liked to have chimed in with thirty seconds ago.
Oh hey, can you try to explain why you want to do that? I'm always confused by it because unless you mean to end on a dramatic pause, these are just regular sentences and those usually end on a period (or nothing/smiley, if you're an internet person
I think it's just a desire to indicate some uncertainty about something (like - I'm not an expert, my opinion on whatever could change with time or new information). A full stop seems arrogant somehow.
I realise it's not a good impulse and mostly resist. Mostly ...
(that last one's nothing to do with the above reasoning, it's just a line from Aliens that's stuck in my head).
This..is an example sentence...just to tell you..something.
Usually you see that with older people not used to texting or someone who's first language is not english. But you see so many of that, it makes you wonder. I think they're trying to make it look like they're processing their thoughts as they're typing?
I don't expect people to be Charles Dickens here, but jesus, I'd rather someone take their time getting a thought out than for me to see a poorly written draft of it.
I did that a lot as a kid, as well as having to scratch e.g. my left arm if I'd just scratched my right arm. I had to put my first step on a new surface with my left foot and the last with my right, and I had a system of sort of aping something I'd just heard by grinding my teeth, which I still sort of do sometimes but only in my head because my teeth have grown in such a way that I can't really do it any more.
I remember I used to eat a bag of crisps by holding the bag in my right hand and picking with my left, until one day I decided that was stupid, and rather than just giving up dictating which hand did what, I switched hands.
I used to do something similar. If I touched something with my index finger, I had to touch it with my thumb.
The most noticeable example was adjusting my car stereo. I'd press next several times, or volume up several times, then I'd press it one more time with my thumb.
I tended to start things with oh. especially when asked a quesition. what time is it? oh its about 1pm. thing is im irish and a redhed and then people would ask my last name that does not begin with an O but sounds like it could.