One of thousands of Twitter status messages about CAPS LOCK DAY.
THERE'S NOTHING MOST TECH-SAVVY PEOPLE HATE MORE THAN SEEING THIS - THE ESSENTIAL SHOUTING OVER THE COMPUTER - THROUGH THE ENTIRE USE OF THE CAPS LOCK.
BUT APPARENTLY TODAY WE ARE TO CELEBRATE IT IN HONOR OF INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY, WHICH HAS ITS OWN WEBSITE, AND NOW ITS OWN TWITTER ACCOUNT (THOUGH THERE ARE ONLY A FEW POSTINGS.)
I HAVEN'T A CLUE AS TO WHY WE ARE WE CELEBRATING SOMETHING THAT DRIVES MOST PEOPLE CRAZY - AND TO A POINT WHERE IT'S A TRENDING TOPIC ON GOOGLE AND TWITTER. A QUICK SEARCH OF THE WEB SHOWS ME IT WAS JUST AN IDEA THAT HAPPENED IN 2000 AND HASN'T STOPPED SINCE.
I ALREADY CAN'T STAND LOOKING AT THIS POST IN ALL CAPS, IN THE SAME WAY I CAN'T STAND IT WHEN SOMEONE WHO'S NEVER TYPED AN E-MAIL BEFORE (THAT'S YOU, MANY MOMS AROUND THE WORLD) AND THEY TYPE IT IN MASSIVE 20-POINT, BRIGHT PINK, ALL CAPS FONTS. WE GET IT, YOU LOVE US. OR HATE US. OR WHATEVER YOU'RE TRYING TO CONVEY THAT YOU MUST SHOUT IT IN ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION. NOT TO MENTION, AS SOME PEOPLE NOTED, OBSERVING THE HOLIDAY BRINGS YOU PROBLEMS WITH YOUR PASSWORD.
so. with that. we at this just in, will scoff at the all caps, and go another route, marking this day of punctual sacrifice in a paradoxical ee cummings-esque style. (because that much caps lock, would even make me want to scream at me for typing this way.) so we say, forget the caps - completely.
and we have the backing and firepower of the federal highway administration behind us. seriously. they just recently directed every city, town and place in the nation to make every new street sign must have upper- and lower-case letters in hopes of increasing legibility and reducing accidents.
see ya later MAIN STREET, hello Main Street. (forgive our use of the caps there, it was just to show the point.)
not everyone is happy - specifically - the city that never sleeps. it's known for its iconic signs in all caps. on the streets, subways and everywhere else. now the city says it would cost them more than $27 million to complete the task. and will anyone want to buy a street sign that says Madison Ave? certainly it's not as attractive as the iconic MADISON AVE. (apologies again.) and new yorkers are not happy either, the daily news reported.
Okay, enough with the ridiculousness, our copy editors are probably up in arms by now.
Let's just take this time to be thankful that while the Internet will be lit up in all caps today, it could be worse, we could be celebrating Comic Sans day.
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How did you people get your own day?
All caps is only OK in certain situations. Sending your tweet is not one of them, unless you are really angry and making a profound verbal argument to your nemesis. And even then, you still "sound" less effective than if you use proper caps and lowercase.
Why don't you just post in multicolored comic sans and complete the torture?
Sorry, but there is -never- a situation where all caps is appropriate for dialogue. You get one word at most. Period.
IT IS JUST LETTERS. IT DOES NOT "HURT YOUR EYES" YOU ARE ALL PARANOID. GET OVER YOURSELVES AND MOVE ON WITH YOUR LIVES. WAHHHH!! IT HURTS MY EYES-WAHHHHH!!
Forget the caps day-HOW DARE YOU BASH MOMS, YOU IGNORANT FOOL-SERIOUSLY! MANY HAVE NEVER TYPED AN EMAIL BEFORE!
you have way bigger problems than ALL CAPS.........................
Thank you for this NON-STORY CNN
I"M PLEASED TO TAKE PART IN ANYTHING THAT ANNOYS THE GRAMMER NAZIS.
CAPS LOCK IS CRUISE CONTROL FOR AWESOME
WHAAAAT!!!!!!!!
If you are gonna call me a grammar nazi, at least spell it right
I CHECKED OUT THE WEB PAGE AND DEAR GOD WHOEVER UPDATES THAT SITE HAS THE WORST GRAMMAR/SPELLING/TYPING SKILLS I'VE EVER SEEN!
This is pointless, annoying article. It's also badly written.
I already can't stand the whinnnny babies who say " I ALREADY CAN'T STAND LOOKING AT THIS POST IN ALL CAPS " .
Caps is actually easier to read for many and all the people it drives crazy are actually repressed anal retentive or frustrated eunuchs or . . . { name your dysfunction here } .
Get a life already and give us a vacation from your incessant sniveling .
THANKS
@QWERTY CAPSLOCK, and Engineer Mom, et al. great posts. Apparently, all those born after 1990 actually hear screaming. I hope this is not some accelerated Darwinian thing going on here.
stupid
It's just an emphasis in thought...not hollering...you people are too sensitive
There is nothing wrong with Comic Sans. It's a nice, legible font and haters need to get a life.
As someone who has spent a lot of time analyzing and appreciating typefaces, I can say with extreme confidence and hubris... you are wrong.
I agree, Comic Sans is a good font.
Only if your name is Charlie Brown.
LOVE Comic Sans
Here's a not so fun trick: hold down your shift key for 8 seconds.
To undo, tap your shift key several times, and select cancel.
do it to a coworker's computer, i dare you!
just type your password into word, use the lowercase function, and copy and paste it.
that way you don't have to abandon your ALL CAPS DAY tradition.
i hate my life
LOL! (Oops. What about exclamation point? May I still use it?.... : )
DID IT EVER DAWN ON ALL YOU NIT PICKING IDIOTS THAT THE LARGER CAPPED PRINT IS EASIER TO READ FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE VISION TROUBLES. WHEN I WANT TO SCREAM I DO IT WITH WORDS!!
Maybe it never occurred to you that you can increase font size of your system so its easier to read?
I was thinking exactly that Elissa. I've talked with people online who use all caps because they could not see. They clarified that with me when I asked them.
Now for reference of those who do have eye sight issues using a browser, in firefox and internet exlporer, you can hold the caps key and use the scroll wheel on your mouse to increase the size of the text on the screen. I'm sure it works with other browsers. I don't know if Mac systems have the same feature.
IE – Click View – select Text Size / Firefox click View – select Zoom
Turn them off and GET GLASSES!
Increase the screen resolution works TOO!
Start – Settings – Control Panel – Display – Appearance – Font Size – Extra Large
And/or, Follow gary's instructions to adjust font size for a particular browser. Forcing everyone else to look at all caps because you have a vision problem is like forcing everyone ELSE to use a wheelchair because YOU can't walk.
Disagree...if you can't read it, make the font larger. All caps is harder on the eyes and more difficult to read.
NO, IT'S NOT. IT'S JUST EASIER FOR PEOPLE WHO HAD A HARDER TIME LEARNING LOWER CASE LETTERS.
Everyone else can read normally just fine.
Mercfan . . . are you flippin' SERIOUS????? "Turn them off and get glasses"?????? I'm sure many people who have vision problems wish it was that easy. How insensitive is THAT?!
And Ceana, Mac is easier than PC. With newer Macs, you just place two fingers on the trackpad and spread your fingers apart . . . it enlarges whatever is on the screen.
If you ever took the time to look at the letters in caps vs lower case you would notice caps have no deviation in height, every thing is that same size. When typing lower case letters their height varies. Some letters drop below the line while others extend upwards. This variation helps you to distingious words. When everything is in caps it is a little harder to read.
Stop yelling!!!!
parrot should feel right at hime then... everyday is capslock day for him
*home... stupid dyslexia lol
i like comic sans! who really cares as long as its legible... geez so many other things in the world to discuss than computer fonts...
IF EVERYBODY USES ALL-CAPS THEN HOW WILL WE TELL THE SPUTTERING, VITRIOLIC TEA-BAGGER POSTS FROM THOSE OF THE SANE? Maybe there needs to be a sputtering-vitriolic font, hmm?
Good idea, but it needs to be set to default as White.
Ha, ha, ha!
I think you meant acerbic.
This lost all credibility and amusement when you specified that mom's around the world aren't computer savvy. D%*K
You have to admit, though, that they do have a problem determining when – and when not – to use apostrophes.
Callin' it like it is...
"mom's"?
Whoever wrote this article obviously intended to use the capitalization they did, because they don't know how to use the Shift key, either. But the Caps Lock key is not a bad thing, even if you do forget to turn it on or off, that's the beauty of using a computer instead of a typewriter, you can go back and change it, and if you type an entire article without looking at the screen, then you're probably going to misspell stuff anyway (maybe that explains why there are usually so many misspelled posts in forums and comments). And even though it may not be used as often as the Shift key, it is sometimes used, for example, when typing headings for flyers, I always leave it on when I let me 2 year old nephew who is learning the alphabet use my computer, look at advertisements, and I'm sure there are other uses as well. But it's been part of the standard keyboard layout since the typewriter, so we obviously weren't going to get rid of it. As for the street signs, I think all caps is easier to see, what's easier to see: UPPER or lower case? Do I think there should be a day dedicated to it? No, but there are also lots of other things with days dedicated to them that I don't think should, so what do I know?
This article wins the prize for "Hardest Article to Read on CNN.com."
This is the problem of America.
The words "Happy" and "Caps Lock" do not belong together.
Growup all you CAPS users. That just shows how lazy all of you are. Proper grammer has gone haywire. And it is the young who are destroying it. They all failed spelling. And are all lazy., at work, home and school. What a country we live in. It's a shame.
Hey rick, you spelled grammar incorrectly. 'And' do not start a sentence with the word and..... ah the young have destroyed the language.