shouting!

[Allen Crisp]

Does anyone know why/how typing in capital letters came to be regarded as equivalent to shouting in spoken conversation? Sure, real-life shouting is pretty rude, but capital letters are just symbols on a screen - how can they really upset anyone? I've seen several questions posted on the AB in capitals and the first response is not usually a helpful answer, but some clever dick saying "stop shouting". I think it's all a bit childish, really.

[fiona611]

It's all just come as a way of expression i guess. you could argue why an exclamation mark is considered as a sign of alert, warning or danger as it's just a line and a dot, but again its a sign of technological expression.

[kempie]

Using capitals in text is one form of emphasis much as shouting is one form of emphasis used in speech - and both can be considered to be not very effective.

http://www.webstyleguide.com/type/emphasis.html


There have been many scientific studies which indicate that reading capitals is less efficient (i.e. slower, more arduous) than reading the equivalent text in mixed case.

http://hubel.sfasu.edu/courseinfo/SL03/email_study.htm

[Allen Crisp]

Thanks. It also seems that many of the people who make such a play of being offended by text in upper case do not have a similar regard for other conventions of written English, such as spelling, punctuation, grammar and syntax.

[WoWo]

yea thats rite alan. wot do all thez mugs have a problem wiv. itz all da same init so what duz it matter if itz in upper case.

[WoWo]

Sadly lost it's power becase answer bank seems to conver UPPER case to Lower.

[wideboy]

Maybe it also goes back to the days when you couldn't have bold or underline on screen for emphasis? Don't suppose many people can remember them?

[Space]

Written insults are just symbols on a screen too. They still upset people anyway.