Capitalize This!

Back in 1996, when I was 18 years old and e-mailing was still very new and we were all starting to make it a regular part of our existence, I remember there were very lively debates about formalities and punctuations in writing.

All of the sudden our attention was drawn to which of us and our friends were terrible spellers and had terrible grammar and punctuation abilities.

I remember cringing at the incorrect use of words like there, their, and they're, and thinking, very briefly, as an aspiring journalist, how glad I was that I was such a good speller. To this day I still hate bad spelling but if I love you, you are forgiven.

I also remember deciding, that in e-mails, we OUGHT to have the freedom to be informal. After all, I spent so much time trying to avoid the famous Medill F in my classes that I couldn't possibly be bothered by, for example, taking the time to capitalize my sentences or proper nouns. I mean, how inane and tiresome. This was the digital age! And anyway, I was writing to my friends, who love me and do not judge me based on my attention to typing detail. Later on, that attitude also began to apply to blogging as well.

If I have ever commented on your blog, more than likely, it was in all lower case. But I have to finally own up to something. My attempt at devil-may-care casual tones in typing is a fraud. I'm a poser to the nth degree. Because for all these years, I have staunchly told myself that NOT capitalizing was easier, and for all these years, that has been a bold-face lie.

I began to notice, I don't know however long ago, that when I really get into it, when I type without regard, that capital letters find their way into my writing. In other words, I start to type something and as the words begin to flow, my little pinky easily and swiftly drifts over to the shift button and before I know it- BAM!!!! 'I' is capitalized. Sentence beginnings have capital letters. Proper nouns have capital letters; and NOT capitalizing a word actually takes more time and conscious thought than the other way around.

Who knew? I did. And I was not willing to admit it, and it is so arbitrary that I don't want to dwell on the psychology behind it. I just want to own up to it without making any promises. I may continue to comment on your blog in lower case. But I know it's a front. I'm like the kid who smoked to be cool. Oh wait, I did smoke to be cool. Well now you know.