You’ll see some people… write like… this on Facebook… Where did it come from?

I see people (mostly from the older generation) use “…” a lot in their Facebook posts. I’m almost certain that they are trying to emulate their speech cadence, rather than write ominously.

But I wonder if there’s any historical background to this? Were personal letters ever written with an abuse of ellipses? Can we find this style of writing in other places that aren’t online?

Edit: To clarify, I know what an ellipsis is, but it seems like it’s being used in an unusual way by some people. Is this a internet dialect thing, or does this way of using ellipses predate the internet?