INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY
Go on. Type freely and without worry. Take the easy route. It’s INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY! No one will be able to tell if you’re shouting, celebrating or if you always type in all caps.
It seems the world needs to use the caps lock so much, we recognize this day twice a year; October 22nd and June 28th.
International Caps Lock Day pokes fun at the typographical way some Westerners use the caps lock. The founder of the October 22nd date, Derek Arnold, a software developer from Iowa, was quoted as saying, “…the majority of the world’s population writes in scripts which have no concept of letter casing.”
That may be so, but the majority of the scripts in the world do have letter casing. And the rules applied to them vary depending on the language and the script. Whether a language uses Greek, Latin, Arminian, Coptic or several others, a bicameral script forms the typographical word. Even Eastern languages switch between forms and have developed uppercase letters as a way to identify works written in katakana.
Typography and the development of written code for languages aside, Caps Lock Day provides an opportunity to add fun to our day and perhaps get away with a few shouted texts and tweets.
HOW TO OBSERVE
Use your Caps Lock key, but not with abandon. While the rules for the day may have been thrown out the proverbial window, the day is not called All Caps All Day Day. Enjoy the memes and use #CapsLockDay to share on social media.
HISTORY
Derek Arnold founded International Caps Lock Day on October 22, 2000, as a parody on “small-mindedness of certain Western individuals.” The June 28th day commemorates the day Billy Mays died on June 28, 2009. His caps lock enthusiasm was broadcast through infomercials and made him internationally famous.
