THIS ONE IS REALLY UPSETTING PEOPLE.

ISN’T IT AMAZING HOW MUCH SIGNIFICANCE CAPITAL LETTERS HOLD IN THE ONLINE CONVERSATIONAL CONTEXT? DESPITE THE DISCLAIMER THAT THE WEDNESDAY THEME WAS “CAPSLOCK WEDNESDAY”, AND WAS NOT INTENDED TO CONVEY ANGER IN ANY WAY, THE FORMAT OF MY MESSAGE WAS STILL OFFENSIVE NONETHELESS.

ALTHOUGH IT WAS BLOODY HILARIOUS TO READ VARIOUS PEOPLE’S RESPONSES TO MY CAPSLOCK WEDNESDAY ANNOUNCEMENT:

SHANNON

me: TODAY IS CAPSLOCK WEDNESDAY!!!
Shannon: WELL THEN TAKE THIS!!
me: WHAT DID I SAY?
Shannon: NOTHING ITS CAPSLOCK DAY SO I CAP LOCKED YOU TEHE
me: DON’T YOU CAPSLOCK ME YOUNG LADY!
Shannon: HEY YOU STARTED IT. DON’T MAKE ME TELL ON YOU….WELL MAYBE NOT THAT BUT…YEAH
me: MY FOOT ITCHES!!!

KRISTEN

me: TODAY IS CAPSLOCK WEDNESDAY
kristen: stop yelling at me.
me: I’M NOT! IT’S CAPSLOCK WEDNESDAY
kristen: argh, I won’t put up with all this yelling.
me: YELL AT MATT!
kristen: I don’t yell at Matt, you nut. now, if you don’t cease this yelling, I will be forced to go.
🙂
ok, actually, I need to go anyway, but the caps lock thing makes me nuts. No matter how hard I try not to hear it in yelling I can’t seem to keep it from doing that in my head.
me: matt thought it was pretty damn funny cuz he’s been typing in capslock all day =P
kristen: heh

MATT

me: TODAY IS CAPSLOCK WEDNESDAY
mattmay: OMFG THATS FUNNY BECAUSE I HAVE BEEN TYPING WITH CAPSLOCK ALL DAY LOL
me: DUDE! YOU ARE SO IN!
mattmay: WOOT
LUNCH TIME YAY
me: CHAT WITH KRISTEN IN CAPSLOCK!
SHE LOVES IT!
MY FOOT ITCHES!

BLAIR (CARRIE’S SISTER)

me: TODAY IS CAPSLOCK WEDNESDAY
blair.cibuls: OH I LIKE THAT!
IT’S LIKE EVERYONE IS ANGRY ALL DAY
me: ME TOO
ANGRY IS GOOD!
MY FOOT ITCHES!!!
blair.cibuls: SCRATCH IT FOOL!
me: WHAAAAGHHH!

CARRIE

me: TODAY IS CAPSLOCK WEDNESDAY
DaBoon: WOOOOOOOOOO
HAVE A GREAT DAY
me: YOU TOO!
DaBoon: STOP YELLING AT ME
!!!!
me: OKAY!
I WILL STOP YELLING AT YOU!
MY FOOT ITCHES!!!
DaBoon: I AM SORRY ABOUT THAT!!
me: ME TOO! IT WON’T STOP!
me: NOBODY LIKES ME ANYMORE
NOW I’M REALLY BEING IGNORED.
DaBoon: DON’T BE LIKE THAT

WIKIPEDIA:

On Internet chat systems and Usenet, typing in all capitals is considered rude, the large letters akin to shouting or yelling within the social context. On a more practical level, caps lock may be difficult to read. [1] A user who excessively uses capital letters may be advised to “lay off the caps lock.”

Use of the caps lock is also associated with newbies who do not consider the appearance of their writing. On the PC keyboard used with most operating systems (Mac OS X excluded), holding the shift key with caps lock on will produce a lowercase letter, yielding a text style considered typical:

tHIS USER loves HER/HIS cAPS lOCK KEY.

VOULEZ-VOULEZ-VOUS shhhhhh….