I got given my first email address when I went to Edinburgh University in 1995. However, in my four years there email was rarely used and so I only really started to use email on graduating in the summer of 1999 when I signed up for a Hotmail account. So let's say I have been using email for fourteen and a half years and I am sure there are many who have been using it longer. Yet this whole time, every time I have to type an email address or Twitter handle, I have to hold down "Shift" and "'" to get an @ sign! ("shift" and "2" in some countries). This is very frustrating and time for the keyboard and computer manufacturers to "wise-up" (as we say in Belfast) and give @ its own key.

What makes it all the more frustrating is that these signs get their own key:

• [
• ]
• `

This means that the @ sign is in very poor company. Here are some of the other symbols that you also have to press the "shift" key to get:

• ¬
• ^
• ~
• |

The @ sign is very important in our day to day work and lives. Please join the campaign to get @ a well deserved space on the keyboard and its very own key.