BEWARE OF CAPS!

In the milieu of e-mails, texts, and IM's, CAPS are the equivalent of screaming fire in a crowded theater. Yelling across an upscale dining room to a long lost friend. Public screaming matches.

Vicki Walker, an employee of New Zealand's ProCare Health actually lost her job for her missives to fellow employees, which she wrote in red, bold, and cap fonts. Apparently, her co-workers missed the boat on following directions when filling out forms. Perhaps she could have added a few smiling emoticons or that cute little less than sign followed by a 3 to look like a heart? Some xoxoxoxo's to soften the blow?

Vicki won her wrongful termination case. Perhaps, her mood has shifted and she will revert to lower case letters in a pretty blue.
Personally, I have tales from less tech saavy women who gone CAP-happy, unaware of the implication. Maybe there needs to be a rule book about PC politeness and Mac Manners? Let's start out with a couple of pointers.

1. CAPS imply you are hopping mad or at least hot under the collar. The equivalent of shouting and screaming, no matter the message. And unless you are emphasizing a point, lose the bold face or rainbow effect of switching colors mid-message.

2. Save the heavy hand with emoticons for those under the age of 13. This is kind of like the social equivalent of wearing a message t-shirt reading "I'm With Stupid" with an arrow pointing to the right or "My Parents Went to Vegas and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt."

3. Unless you are planning to overthrow the PTA or go in on a birthday gift, there's really no need to hit Reply All. Especially since most of us are on Blackberry's or i-phones. Do we all need to know you got the message? 24/7!

4. Enough with all those flowery e-mails to show everyone how much they are loved or some lame joke which we have seen a few dozen times. Ditto all those e-mails telling us to add our name to some online petition. I am an activist by nature but until you've checked it out on Snopes.com.

5. As tempting as it is, don't write an e-mail you wouldn't send. All it takes if for one person to inadvertently hit Send and your message is sent into Cyberspace. Wars have been fought over less!

I realize I am probably preaching to the choir. But feel free to add a few smiley faces and forward to your friends who aren't as tech saavy as you! Just don't use all CAPS!