It’s a tale as old as time, a controversy embedded in modern day culture. It’s the war between the hipsters and the rest of (seemingly) normal society. Within this war lies an immense amount of disagreement between subjects like the way shoes should be tied, the music that should be popular, and even the beverages that people drink, (For the record, tea is far cooler than coffee.)  

A hipster is referred to by Urban Dictionary as “a subculture of American consumers for whom the idea behind the marketing holds more value than the product being marketed.”  For example, a hipster walks into a trendy record store and picks up a random record but he or she does so simply to brag to others about the rarity of the chosen wax. For this hipster, the undergirding motivation is not to listen and enjoy but rather to score cool-kid points merely for the purchase. Picture this, then: a vintage Fleetwood Mac album — conspicuously unplayed — lying without purpose on a ignorant hipster’s coffee table.

The wacky things hipster do! But wait — there’s more! Did you know that a new trend where they seperate themselves from the rest of us is by writing texts with no uppercase. Yep: You heard it right. All lower case. Let’s say you text the following to your friend: “I will meet you at Starbucks on Tuesday.” The moody hipster would render that as follows: “i will meet you at starbucks on tuesday.”

Now you get it: the battle of upper vs. lowercase texting is dividing us as a society. This disagreement is relatively new and is characterized by immensely unemotional texting techniques displayed by the hipsters.

Sophomore Kevin Lockhart is bent on keeping both the grammar police and his literature teacher by sticking with conventional case texting. “I use proper punctuation and capitalization because it allows me to express myself much easier,” he said. “It’s like being able to scream at your friend without being there.”

Lockhart says that texting with correct capitalization and punctuation makes it much easier to interpret emotions as well. “Without punctuation nobody would be able to tell when I’m being sarcastic,” he said.  

There is another side, as you would imagine. Sophomore Samantha Stewart says that lowercase texting is not only trendy, but also preferred. “I saw someone texting in lowercase one day, and I just thought it looked really cool,” said Stewart. “All the trendy people use lowercase to text.”

The battle between hipsters and the rest of society is endless. Of course we all know rules and, yes, we tend to follow them. Our parents might be right. It’s best to use capitalization for proper nouns. But if you’re wanting to live on the wild — and moody — side, go for it. Throw capitalization out the window, go low, and get in texting touch with your hipster side.