¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 I often “shout” – raise my voice. Some is due to my hard of hearing. I am often told to stop shouting on the telephone, when I, only then, recognize that my voice was loud. I was not intentionally shouting. But, in conversation with E I appear often to not be heard, so when I don’t get any acknowledgement, I raise my voice. E always insists she hears me and has responded, often with an almost invisible gesture.

¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 0 I also “SHOUT” in “anger” when I believe I am being emotionally “dissed”. This I am immediately aware of and am embarrassed. This is never consciously done, but it does happen. It sometimes leads to the others also raising their voices, and it occasionally turns into a “shouting match”. This happens only with family members, never with friends or strangers.

¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0 Today, in an email, a friend wrote: “please stop shouting at me”. It part, it was probably a reaction to my immediately prior email, which was in ALL CAPS. This was by accident. I was rushing to finish our email dialog and just happened to have my keyboard set to all caps.

¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 0 This alerted me to my blindspot that many persons do interpret ALL CAPS as shouting. Many years ago I was severely chastised for using font variations in my online messaging. I believe we have not yet begun to utilize the potentials of digital visual communication and seem to insist on practices we acquired because of the limitations of the printed word.

¶ 5 Leave a comment on paragraph 5 0 Yet, if others read my message as SHOUTING, then I need to take measures to match my messages according to each recipient’s personal preferences. These are difficult to know and often messages are read by many persons.