Does all lower-case writing irrationally annoy anyone else?

[CrazyMidget]

This makes me SO MAD. I think because it just looks so stupid. All lower-case is not the way we write. It's not how our language works.

I've just renamed 6 files at work because the file-names were all lower-case even though there were TWO names in them. It looked like an eleven-year-old had named them. You can't just take one of the most important rules of the English language and decide never to apply it!

my cousin and i used to email. she never once used a single capital letter, like this. she would never even cap proper nouns like london. it wasn't like she sometimes forgot. she never used a capital letter in an email once. like, ever. the laziness and how stupid her writing looked really annoyed me. it would simply never occur to me to think 'oh, i'm going to dump a basic tenet of the language.'

Those file names that are all lower-case today just reminded me of this and how much I hate it when people just decide that capital letters are an optional extra.

I should have replied to my cousin in all-caps.

NO BECAUSE ALL CAPS ARE AGRESSIVE.

but if it's ok to type in all lower-case, it should be ok to type in all upper-case. typing in all lower-case doesn't mean you're stupid, even if it looks like it. so typing in all-caps doesn't mean you're mad, even if it looks like it. kwim?

I had to fight hard not to hit the Caps key in the correct places in the above.

Unless it's an e e cummings poem, then yes. It does. My offspring laugh at me for putting semi colons in a text and refusing to use 'text speak'.

If it requires a semi colon then I will use one.

There is a shop near me which is the name of a person - think Francesca Jones - and the F and J are in lower case and it annoys me every time I go past it!! (Not the real name of course)

It annoys me, but I am not sure the annoyance is irrational.

It's so nice to be among others who have standards!

I always think that incorrect punctation, grammar, and usage is the intellectual equivalent of going around with your skirt tucked into the back of your knickers. You may not actually be stupid, but you certainly look it!

Ahhh, lapslock. I discovered this horror from reading fanfiction.

Yes, winds me up. Not as much as when you see handwritten in upper case but the ‘l’ is in lower case 😡

Assume you couldn't bear to keep reading? I am no longer friends with my cousin. Not because of her lack of caps, but because of her total lack of support during bereavement and divorce. But not having to put up with emails looking like they were written by someone as thick as shit is a fantastic silver lining!

When "I" is written in lower-case, it makes the writer look about as clever as the character from the Philadelphia cream cheese ads.

I believe that when reading, a lot of 'word recognition' is based on the shape of the word. For example, it is easier to recognise the word 'bottle' by its shape when in lower case but more difficult when 'BOTTLE' is all in upper case.

There is a better explanation if you google 'word recognition lower case vs upper case'

Yes, exactly. That mix of shapes is part of making a writing system easy to read, along with punctuation. We have both because just one isn't enough.

I do hate it when people mess about with basic parts of the language. It's the way it is FOR A REASON!

Oh I hate it too. My best friend once refused to go into an exhibition on a date because none of the artists’ names had capital letters!

Yes agree. It's childish and/or ignorant

In the past couple of moths Mumsnet changed things (I only use the Mumsnet app) and when you put in a full stop and go onto a new line you don’t get a capital letter as you would with writing emails, texts etc etc.
I brought it to Mumsnet Towers attention but they didn’t give a sh*t ☹️
It’s still the same.

The solution

To that would be

To stop using the awful app

And use the mobile site.

No problem with caps on new lines or sentences

AGGRESSIVE

true @LydiaJayne

On my phone I sometimes (because of fat fingers) end up typing lower case i instead of the upper case I when I am referring to myself. Frequently I don't notice until I get to the end of the message and then drive myself mad having to shift back through the message so I can correct it.

I cannot send an incorrect text. It makes me feel ill. Or Ill, I suppose.

Good for her! She has standards!

I used to work at an ‘international news and business information agency’ and when I started there we wrote everything in lower case because it just went straight to subscribers’ ‘tape’ machines (and by the magic of technology it came up as all caps.) This was for reasons of speed, getting the news/info out to subs in the financial markets as quickly as possible.
As technology improved a sister organisation, the Press Association, gave its staffers a substantial pay uplift for using caps where needed but our lot refused. We were very pissed off, especially as the speed requirements were as vital as ever. But caps and paragraphs slow you down. Tant pis.

We had to lump it but I still struggle with caps occasionally. So apols.

Yes, I agree. Ex primary school teacher here. We teach the correct way to use punctuation and spelling - it’s easier for some children than others, so repetition of the same rule is reinforced day in and day out. The children find pride in a well written and presented piece of writing.
There are many examples of advertisements which use only lower case - many targeted at children’s products.
Why undermine the skills that have been painstakingly taught - by teachers who have found imaginative and interesting ways to do so?

Yes! I have a colleague who does this in all her emails. Really winds me up. She works in comms!

Not all lower case, but... Just today I couldn't bring myself to buy a birthday banner because it said 'happy 80th Birthday.' Lower case h, capital B. It would have been for my mum's upcoming milestone birthday, and I liked the colour of it. It would've just bugged me so much every time I looked at it. Why?!!

I am Very Old. Many years ago Microsoft would not allow file names to.have Capitals or other non-lower case letters. I have caught up with being able to.use caps in file names but maybe the file owner hasn't. However, does it really matter ?
Edited to apologise for weird full.stops and other stuff, too tired to correct. 🤗