Capital Idea, Old Chap

When was the last time a capital letter hurt your soul?

It happened to a lot of people this week when WhatsApp subtly changed ‘online’ and ‘typing’ by capitalising the ‘O’ and ‘T’.

But I wonder if it was the younger generation that were the most upset. Perhaps may of us oldies rejoiced?

From my experience, it’s usually the lack of capitals that gets people in a tizz.

Especially in the workplace.

Many people need the smelling salts when words like government and budget aren’t capped up. The idea being that it’s not respectful or professional enough. It wasn't what they were taught at school.

But things have moved on: back in the day, capitalising as many words as possible helped to signify Things of Importance. Such as names of people, places, institutions, specific terms etc. We all liked to know where we stood back then.

Now we’re less hierarchical as a society, and our language has changed to reflect this. It’s now more important that our messages are accessible. Hurrah.

I Mean, Look how Difficult it is to Read when Capitals Dominate Proceedings.

There is a balance though

Really young people seem to have thrown the capital letter baby out with the bathwater. they text like this, they start sentences with ‘hey’ or even ‘i’ [insert shock emoji].

Chaucer would be turning in his grave.

Pop stars (do they still call them that?!) have been doing this for years. Perhaps it’s too much effort to hold down the shift key.

Whatever the reason, I agree it's quite liberating, having dabbled in it myself.

YOLO.

But does this mean we'll end up having to adopt this approach professionally in order to connect with young people?

I don't think so.

Sometimes a more formal stance is just what they're looking for. Both in terms of how we communicate and how offer our services.

I was speaking to someone who offers advice to young adults with maturing Child Trust Funds this week. I asked about the appetite among them for speaking to an adviser. Surely they want to do everything themselves online?

She said that while 18-year-olds are naturally happy to manage things like change of address themselves digitally, for the bigger decisions, only a human face will do. Speaking to someone real about their money helps to ease them into the conversation and grow their financial confidence.

So there’s still a place for us fogeys and our formal ways. It may even be a source of comfort.

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