About

Using the Shift Key When Caps Lock Is On refers to a series of image macros expressing the frustrations of accidentally misusing a computer keyboard caused by the function that makes letters lower case when capitalization lock is active. These expressions are generally expressed through photoshopped images of humans with their heads manipulated to look smaller and disproportionate from the rest of the subject's body. This mimics the effect of having one lower case letter in a word or sentence of capitalized letters.

Origin

The earliest available example of the meme was posted in 2013 by MemeCenter ^[1] user Gruder (shown below). The post features the First World Problems crying woman and the caption "Held SHIFT for capital letters / CAPS Lock was on."

Spread

Over the next few years, expressions of this specific frustrations continued to appear online. For example, in September 2014, Imgflip ^[2] user XenusianSoldier posted a Know What Grinds My Gears meme with the caption "wHEN I HIT CAPS LOCK INSTEAD OF SHIFT, AND i DON'T NOICE IT UNTIL I FINISH TYPING THE SENTENCE." The post received more than 6,400 views and 95 upvotes in five years (shown below, left).

In April 2017, in a since-deleted tweet user @Eddy_Kruger tweeted a photograph of singer Ruben Studdard with an edited head and the caption "Using shift to capitalize the first letter when caps lock is on" (shown below, center).^[3][4]

The following year, Redditor ^[5] IM_DEAD_ASS posted a version of ReviewBrah. The post received more than 67,000 points (94% upvoted) and 380 comments in less than six months (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References