Well , it seems the U.S. Navy finally got the memo : DO N'T USE ALL CAPS ! IT 'S RUDE ! The Navy is switching to a new messaging system that 's cheaper and more efficient . And oh yeah , one that does away with a century-old practice : communications using all uppercase letters . `` Lowercase messages are here to stay ; they provide a more readable format , '' a Navy news release said , citing James McCarty , the naval messaging program manager at U.S. Fleet Cyber Command . The all-caps were a vestige of a bygone era . Back in the 1850s , the teletype machines that the military used were made up of three rows of keys -- none of them lowercase letters . Word of the change went out to all naval commands in April . But it did n't reach the rest of us until the news release this week . In it , the Navy said it is ditching its in-house Defense Message System in favor of e-mail . One with a very apt acronym : NICE ( Navy Interface for Command Email ) . The switch will save the Navy $ 20 million a year . And it gets them caught up with current Internet protocol . ALL CAPS READS LIKE YOU 'RE BEING SHOUTED AT . Old sea dogs may feel differently . But they have a couple of months to adjust . The system wo n't fully be in place until next year . Once it is , naval officers will no longer feel like they 're being barked at . Except , of course , in person by their superiors .
The move will save the Navy more than $ 20 million a year . Comment: The Navy has been using all caps since the 1850s .