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> It's a fad associated with AI, popularised by Sam Altman especially. I know this is true but does anyone understand why they do it? It is actually cognitivel

> It's a fad associated with AI, popularised by Sam Altman especially. I know this is true but does anyone understand why they do it? It is actually cognitively disruptive when reading content because many of us are trained to simultaneously proof read while reading. So I also consider it a type of cognitive attack vector and it annoys me extremely as well.

saghm 2y ago
The sibling comment to yours mentions that this is pretty common on Twitter, and I'd guess that it started as a way to making firing off tweets from a phone easier (since the extra effort to hit shift when typing on a phone keyboard is a bit higher, and the additional effort to go back and fix any typos that happen due to trying to capitalize things is also higher compared to using a traditional keyboard). Once enough people were doing it there, the style probably became recognizable and evoked a certain "vibe" that people wanted to replicate elsewhere, including in places where the original context of "hitting the shift key is more work than it's worth" doesn't hold as well.
- bowsamic 2y ago
  > since the extra effort to hit shift when typing on a phone keyboard is a bit higher, and the additional effort to go back and fix any typos that happen due to trying to capitalize things is also higher compared to using a traditional keyboard I'm a bit confused about this. Do people turn off auto capitalisation on their phones? I very rarely have to press shift on my phone
  - saghm 2y ago
    I hadn't considered that. My best guess is that it was originally an intentional decision based on consistency with nouns that people might have mid-sentence that they can't rely on autocorrect to capitalize properly.
  - meowface 2y ago
    I and everyone I know turns it off. On many platforms and in many cultures, capitalization often implies Solemness or even rudeness in 1-on-1 conversations, and otherwise comes across as being out of touch in other kinds of communication.
    - bowsamic 2y ago
      I’ve never encountered anyone turning it off. I avoid socialising with people who think it’s rude to use capitalisation.
      - Izkata 2y ago
        It's not directly rude, it's more like a serious tone of voice. But it only works like that when used unnecessarily, like in chat or IM where the message boundary styling doubles as a sentence boundary. Using the chat/IM style outside of that context just doesn't work and looks really odd, like it's obviously someone who didn't learn those norms and is now mimicking them without understanding them.
        bowsamic 2y ago
        I only communicate seriously
        Izkata 2y ago
        That's different from a "serious tone of voice" though. Think like the way a parent might start talking to their kid when they're angry but not yelling, with something like "You better get home right now." Or another example: "Call me" is a just a regular "let's chat about something", but "Call me." is "something bad happened I need to tell you about, so prepare yourself". Interestingly, you're actually partially doing what I described on 2 of your 3 messages in this chain - you left out the last period because HN formatting makes it obvious where the sentence ends. So even if this norm did apply here (it doesn't really), you're not using the serious tone of voice.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
andai 2y ago
>So I also consider it a type of cognitive attack vector What does this mean?
- alchemist1e9 2y ago
  I mean it seems very intentional and a passive aggressive technique to make the read feel disoriented while reading the content. I can literally feel it assaulting my reading speed.
nomel 2y ago
It's not true at all. It was very common, nearly norm in all online communication until phones started auto correcting with capitalization. You could always tell who was a mac/phone user by their use of capitalization. Sam is older than when that happened. He almost certainly spent the majority of his online life typing in lowercase, as I did. Go look at any old IRC chat log, forum, etc from his era.

saghm 2y ago

The sibling comment to yours mentions that this is pretty common on Twitter, and I'd guess that it started as a way to making firing off tweets from a phone easier (since the extra effort to hit shift when typing on a phone keyboard is a bit higher, and the additional effort to go back and fix any typos that happen due to trying to capitalize things is also higher compared to using a traditional keyboard). Once enough people were doing it there, the style probably became recognizable and evoked a certain "vibe" that people wanted to replicate elsewhere, including in places where the original context of "hitting the shift key is more work than it's worth" doesn't hold as well.

bowsamic 2y ago
> since the extra effort to hit shift when typing on a phone keyboard is a bit higher, and the additional effort to go back and fix any typos that happen due to trying to capitalize things is also higher compared to using a traditional keyboard I'm a bit confused about this. Do people turn off auto capitalisation on their phones? I very rarely have to press shift on my phone
- saghm 2y ago
  I hadn't considered that. My best guess is that it was originally an intentional decision based on consistency with nouns that people might have mid-sentence that they can't rely on autocorrect to capitalize properly.
- meowface 2y ago
  I and everyone I know turns it off. On many platforms and in many cultures, capitalization often implies Solemness or even rudeness in 1-on-1 conversations, and otherwise comes across as being out of touch in other kinds of communication.
  - bowsamic 2y ago
    I’ve never encountered anyone turning it off. I avoid socialising with people who think it’s rude to use capitalisation.
    - Izkata 2y ago
      It's not directly rude, it's more like a serious tone of voice. But it only works like that when used unnecessarily, like in chat or IM where the message boundary styling doubles as a sentence boundary. Using the chat/IM style outside of that context just doesn't work and looks really odd, like it's obviously someone who didn't learn those norms and is now mimicking them without understanding them.
      - bowsamic 2y ago
        I only communicate seriously
        Izkata 2y ago
        That's different from a "serious tone of voice" though. Think like the way a parent might start talking to their kid when they're angry but not yelling, with something like "You better get home right now." Or another example: "Call me" is a just a regular "let's chat about something", but "Call me." is "something bad happened I need to tell you about, so prepare yourself". Interestingly, you're actually partially doing what I described on 2 of your 3 messages in this chain - you left out the last period because HN formatting makes it obvious where the sentence ends. So even if this norm did apply here (it doesn't really), you're not using the serious tone of voice.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

andai 2y ago

>So I also consider it a type of cognitive attack vector What does this mean?

alchemist1e9 2y ago
I mean it seems very intentional and a passive aggressive technique to make the read feel disoriented while reading the content. I can literally feel it assaulting my reading speed.

nomel 2y ago

It's not true at all. It was very common, nearly norm in all online communication until phones started auto correcting with capitalization. You could always tell who was a mac/phone user by their use of capitalization. Sam is older than when that happened. He almost certainly spent the majority of his online life typing in lowercase, as I did. Go look at any old IRC chat log, forum, etc from his era.