diary of a gen z student: why i'm not bothered about using capital letters in my texts

honestly, i can’t remember the last time I wrote something with a pen and paper. why would I need to know how to structure anything when I can get chat-gpt to write any email i’ll ever need to send? 

jane cowan: when i was thirteen, i just turned off automatic capitalisation on my phone. and I never looked back.

so, a few months ago i was nearly crucified by certain readers of the irish examiner for a column i wrote about how gen z doesn’t tend to use punctuation in our texts. in fact, the use of a full stop or an ellipsis in the wrong context can send me into a spiral. because it’s just not what we do. 

a text from a friend that says ‘Hello.’ is likely to induce heart palpitations in someone of my vintage. at the time, i described the uncomfortable formality of perfectly punctuated sentences. why would i text a friend like i’m writing a contract? it’s just not necessary.