Two days a year, dedicated to a double-edged sword

We’ve all been there. Or know someone who has. This Sunday (October 22nd) there’s a whole day devoted to going buck wild with that slip of a finger on your keyboard, unapologetically. But caps aren’t just for loud conversations or baseball. They can be used in emails for stylistic purposes, a simple way to help capitalize on your message to your audience. BUT ARE AMAZINGLY ANNOYING WHEN USED IN EXCESS WITHOUT PURPOSE.

It was 2000 when Derek Arnold, a software developer in Iowa, chose October 22 as the day when everyone should press the Caps Lock key and type only in upper case letters.

He said, “International Caps Lock Day is in fact a testament to the small-mindedness of certain Western individuals: the majority of the world’s population writes in scripts which have no concept of letter casing. Therefore it is advised not to laugh at anyone who celebrates this day as an excuse to dismiss local typographical conventions.”

Now, some people call the Caps Lock key, “the Billy Mays key” — a reference to the infomercial icon with the booming voice who exhorted us to call the 800 number and BUY NOW! So when Mays died on June 28, 2009, Arnold paid homage by adding a second, albeit secondary, day for celebrating International Caps Lock Day to the calendar.