More and more, I find myself writing in lowercase, and specifically in that tumblr lowercase style that uses less punctuation and needlessly abbreviates words.
When I do it I’m definitely conveying a specific register. It’s less formal, less polite, more sarcastic and deadpan. Writing in it feels good, sort of like wearing a leather jacket. It conveys a jaded world-weariness; it says, “I don’t care what you think.”
It can be used to countersignal caring: when someone I barely know wishes me a happy birthday I reply, “Thanks!” When my friend whom I’ve known for half my life does, I reply “thx man.” (Without the period. Punctuation and quotes are a problematic combination.)
I’m more likely to use tumblr lowercase when posting something that’s not directed to anyone in particular. But unless it’s someone I know well and/or it’s a casual, joking context, I use capitals and normal punctuation/spelling standards when I’m talking to someone. It conveys politeness, it conveys “I am taking you seriously” and “we are allies, in this together to seek truth.”
There are people, not so much in this corner of tumblr, but stereotypical tumblr people who show up in my Facebook feed who never deviate from tumblr lowercase. They can be having a serious discussion with a random person on someone else’s Facebook status about the Israel/Palestine situation and there it is, with liberal use of “yr” for “your” and “sry” for “sorry” (spoiler: they’re not) and lots of Capital Letters with “…” and “~” and “???” randomly thrown in from time to time.
I don’t ever want to talk to those people. It’s hard to know exactly what the lowercase register conveys to other people. But to me, it conveys Not a Good Person to Talk To. It makes it seem like they’re always trying to score points or somehow assert their dominance by being the one who cares less. Like they’re never attempting a real discussion, just hiding behind layers of snark to avoid engaging with anyone.
I wonder if that is actually what they’re doing, or if they just really don’t feel like typing the extra e, o, and e in “people.”