International Caps Lock Day – October 22, 2022, history, significance
International Caps Lock Day, October 22 and June 28, is a holiday that needs two days on the calendar to be given its due. Software developer Derek Arnold created the original day to poke fun at “typographical conventions.”
But it became the day we provoke Internet friends and colleagues and raise awareness that writing in all caps is not proper etiquette. Arnold added the second day in honor of boardwalk-bred Billy Mays, the “As Seen on TV” pitchman, who worked with his volume up. So push the Caps Lock key down and give somebody a shout out.
History of International Caps Lock Day
The celebration of the International Caps Lock Day was started in the year 2000. Derek Arnold of Iowa, a user on Metafilter, has established this fun celebration holiday. The holiday has begun as a parody. However, he hadn’t mentioned any reason for this Day.
We can assume that this Day encourages all of us to use capitalization words and know the importance of uppercase letters while typing. Caps Lock is a key in the computer or laptop keyboard.
Pressing the key will display all the words in the capital letter until it is switched off by pressing the button again. It might be observed with an intention to poke fun at those persons who unnecessarily use capitalized letters, words, or phrases.
At times, these uppercase letters in unnecessary usage result in crazy, anger, and yelling. The Day might either encourage people to use the caps lock during their online communication or forbid them from using it.
Caps lock key is used when you need to type a few documents like weather monitoring network. The key is very useful when you wanted to say the words that are more important with the upper case letters. Abbreviations, acronyms, professional letters need capitalization.
INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY TIMELINE
1874
Use Big Words
Remington introduces the typewriter featuring the first QWERTY keyboard, invented by Christopher Latham Sholes and Carlos Glidden, and it types only in upper case letters.
1878
Case Sensitive
The Remington No. 2, which can type in both upper and lower case letters, debuts.
2009
LISTEN UP
Derek Arnold adds June 28 as a second Caps Lock Day to the calendar in honor of the late, loud OxiClean pitchman Billy Mays, who always delivered his pitches in a voice that sounded as though the Caps Lock was stuck in his throat.
2015
Pink Slip
The Protecting Co., a workplace risk assessment firm in the U.K., compiles a list of reasons for terminations that include sending emails to customers in all upper case letters, using a font in lilac.
HOW TO CELEBRATE INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY
Practice just in case
Try changing the case of large blocks of text by plugging it into https://convertcase.net/, a handy conversion tool. You can make upper case, lower case, sentence case, title case, capitalized case, and alternating case.
Hit the button
Go ahead, post a tweet in upper case and see what reaction you get. Email your Mom, and see if you feel something that could legitimately be classified as passive aggression. This is the day to hit the caps lock on purpose, even if you’re not really enraged. But maybe think about it before you reply to your boss.
See how many acronyms you know
An acronym is an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of the words in a name or phrase and pronounced as a word. Have you noticed how many acronyms there are? Make a list: AWOL, POTUS, FUBAR, MADD, SWAT, AIDS, GIF, RADAR, SCUBA.
5 FACTS ABOUT THE KEYBOARD THAT WILL BLOW YOUR MIND
We have key keys
The keys used most are the delete key, the space bar, and the letter “e.”
Early keyboards saved space
Early typewriter keyboards substituted a lower case “l” and an upper case “o” for the numbers one and zero.
There are keyboards for each hand
There are keyboards made for the left hand only and for the right hand only.
There are novelty keyboards
In 2009, Datamancer made a keyboard of SCRABBLE® tiles.
Some keyboards have “chords”
A chorded keyboard, or keyset, allows you to form characters by pressing several keys together, as in playing chords on a piano.
WHY WE LOVE INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY
We have anger issues
Do you have a hair-trigger temper? Do you scream at that creep in the Mazda who just cut you off? Instead of giving him the finger, go home, hit the caps lock, and tell your buddy all about it.
It affirms our power
An IT guy in Iowa created International Caps Lock Day, then felt okay about adding a second piece two it, more than six months apart. If he can do that, what can you do?
It’s a teaching moment
Use the day to teach your kids about the proper uses for upper case letters. Introduce them to the concept of stylebooks, like the one from the Associated Press.
