why gen-z hates capital letters
according to gen-zers themselves.
icymi, gen-z hates capital letters. like seriously hates them. as a member of gen-z myself, i always type in lowercase on social media, and frankly i wanted to see if this was the case for other young people, too.
for many of us, online text is now our primary mode of communication. so, as the internet always does, someone needed to break the rules. thus, the ever traditional rules of grammar were replaced with a nuanced version to better compliment the mediums of online communication and social media.
but what could possibly replace our normal traditional grammar? it’s the almighty lowercase of course!
and let me tell you, i have never seen a more devoted group of grammar subscribers. these people live and breathe lowercase. (and if you dare to add a capital, they will come for you.)
after DMing and texting ten lowercase devotees (both friends and friends-of-friends-of-friends), it became clear that this is way more of a lifestyle than a trend.
btw — according to young people across the u.s. it is true that disabling autocaps is, indeed, a whole thing. chatting with someone new requires great thought. will they think i’m stupid by typing in lowercase letters? will they think my vibe is off if i don’t? these are just some of the questions plaguing gen-zers everywhere. there is no answer, though. the people i chatted to said they always feel out the vibe of the person they’re talking to, then go from there. (isn’t that simply the most gen-z sounding thing ever?)
you may be asking yourself, “why?.” why all of the fuss? why does it matter how the letters i use look on screen? well for one 21 year old, caps just don’t fit her “aesthetic.” “i know it’s a little silly, but the vibes of lowercase letters are just better. normal punctuation is too formal and all caps just seems like someone is yelling at me. i use proper capitalization for work and when i was in school, but otherwise you will only catch me typing in lowercase.”
similarly, jess joho interviews several people regarding their views on the trend for a piece of her own. one of her sources describes their preference for lowercase best, as it comes off as a “conversation between friends.” this statement, i believe, truly encapsulates the attraction to this new wave of communication.
so tell me what you think. are you team lowercase? or proper grammar all the way?
i must admit, writing this without capital letters pains me, so i will be sticking to proper grammar for now (at least in my writing).
