All CAPS or none: It鈥檚 a free-for-all on social media
WRITING EVERYTHING IN ALL CAPS IS GENERALLY UNDERSTOOD AS YELLING, our language columnist notes.
Staff
Looking through news articles, you might assume that the way we capitalize words hasn鈥檛 changed since it was codified in the 19th century. The first letters of proper nouns go in uppercase; job titles are not capitalized unless they come directly in front of a name; seasons are not capitalized unless they are part of a proper noun (鈥渢his spring鈥� versus 鈥渢he Winter Olympics鈥�); etc.聽
On the internet and in social media, however, capitalization is returning to its medieval roots and entering another free-for-all era in which anything and everything can be capitalized 鈥� or not.
While the Associated Press style guide would categorize many of these new uses as 鈥渋ncorrect,鈥� they are far from meaningless.聽
Capitalization, as it is used online, can help readers interpret texts. Putting a word in all caps suggests that IT is the important one. All caps also signals 鈥渆motive arousal,鈥� according to linguist Maria Heath. Texting your son 鈥淚 want you to clean up your ROOM鈥� suggests frustration and anger about the state of said room, while 鈥淚t鈥檚 your BIRTHDAY!鈥� suggests happiness or perhaps surprise.
Writing a single word in all caps highlights importance, but WRITING EVERYTHING IN ALL CAPS IS GENERALLY UNDERSTOOD AS YELLING.聽
Alternating caps 鈥� which are supposed to confuse large language models like ChatGPT but don鈥檛 鈥� convey a mocking tone. These erratic uppercase letters are also known as 鈥淪pongeBob case鈥� or 鈥淪pongeMock鈥� because the association began in a 2017 meme featuring the eponymous cartoon sponge.聽
If a man on an online dating site writes 鈥渋 won鈥檛 waste your time. i鈥檓 different from these other guys鈥� and receives in response 鈥渋M dIfFeReNt FrOm ThEsE oThEr GuYs,鈥� it鈥檚 clear that his interlocutor doesn鈥檛 believe his clich茅d assertion and is making fun of him for being unoriginal and fake.
Writing without uppercase letters entirely, as the man did in the above exchange, is now the default for Generation Z on social media. Some people have adopted the all-lowercase style because they have moral objections to the standard rules of capitalization, in which the egoistic 鈥淚鈥� is capitalized, while 鈥渨e鈥� and 鈥測ou鈥� are not, and in which 鈥淧resident Biden鈥� is uppercase, while 鈥減lumber Biden鈥� wouldn鈥檛 be. Others use it because they feel it communicates intimacy, informality, and warmth, saving 鈥減roper鈥� capitalization for professional settings. Increasingly, in fact, employing formal, 鈥渃orrect鈥� capitalization seems aggressive, just like putting periods in your text messages or SENDING THEM IN ALL CAPS.