Why do so many people seem unable to spell properly any more and why does it bother me so much?

Question

I know it shouldn't bother me - but it does. Is it just laziness, as they could use a spell checker. Does anyone else find it really annoying?

Answer 1

Imcold, I think I love you!
To see that question asked and to see the number of positive responses gladdens my heart.
Jon C

Answer 2

It bothers me too. Some of the mistakes are made because the spelling is in the wrong context. Here is something that will go through some spell checkers:
I've got a spelling chequer, it came with my pea sea, it clearly marks for my review miss stakes eye cannot sea. When eye strike a key, it nose bee four two late, weather I am wrong or write, it's rarely rarely great. I run this letter threw it , be four sending it two ewe and I no it is word perfect, my chequer told me sew. You'll find know miss takes hear!

Answer 3

It's laziness & apathy. Most people don't care. Control freaks & perfectionists like us notice. I've learned to let it go. Don't sweat the small stuff. We live in an imperfect world. I used to love spelling bees & I graduated with an Honours B.A. Specialist in English so I have a healthy respect for the language. Most people just don't care about spelling, grammar, punctuation, sentence structure or even making sense, especially on the internet. People are in too much of a hurry to check their work. Or they don't even know any better.

Don't let it get to you!

:)

Answer 4

I blame the education system, and via them, the government. The "No Child Left Behind" program meant that standards had to be REDUCED to the point where no child would get his feelings hurt by the taint of failure. As a result, no child is expected to learn, or perform, basic skills like spelling and typing.

Add to that a certain amount of laziness. My parents' generation accused us (now 40+ aged adults) of having an "instant gratification" mind set. It might have been true (look at the buzz words that came out of the '80's) - but at least we usually worked for what we wanted. Today's children act like welfare recipients - they believe they are entitled to everything with zero effort spent by themself.

Yes, I find sloppy short-hand spelling and bad grammar to be annoying. But, I think the only way to fix it is to communicate to the users (one on one) the value of being able to effectively communicate.

Answer 5

I think it's because people are so used to using textglish and netglish instead of English. Then it becomes fixed in the mind through overuse and also they're just too lazy to spell words properly. Apparently, Leaving cert level exam scripts and college level essays have been handed in written/typed in textglish. scary thought. No, you're not the only one annoyed by it, it gets on my nerves too, it just shows carelessness and lack of pride in what you're writing..

Answer 6

I find this very irritating and distracting.
There is a lack of awareness among the young.
Use of text messages has encouraged this.
Y!A have provided a spell checker, with this, but people do not use it.
It amounts to laziness

Answer 7

Yes it is annoying but it bothers you so much because you are perfectionistic about spelling (and maybe in other areas of your life). Don't sweat the small stuff. There are certainly bigger things to be bothered about than incorrect spelling. Bad spelling is not the end of the world; heck, I can't do math to save my soul. So don't let it bother you so much.

Answer 8

I'm with the 2 Steves above. It bothers me that so many people don't see the beauty, flexibility, strength and amplitude of the English language.
There's been a general dumbing-down, in American culture at least. People who speak properly are scorned as uptight show-offs. The mediocre masses don't want to bother to learn by reading and listening to anything that might challenge them or take time away from their social lives and boob-tubing.

They get along fine without adjectives & adverbs and the only imagination shown is in use of the f-word many times in one sentence, as different parts of speech.

The poor spelling is just a symptom of a carelessness that extends to other areas, like political decisions.

At times I think it's hopeless to try to raise the level of discourse & logical thinking in this country. We eggheads with our antiquated views are talking to ourselves. God help us all.

Answer 9

Yes, it is quite irritating. Many of them think it's cool to sound ghetto and type in some retarded code that intelligent people won't care to read. I was taught from a very early age to spell correctly and I never thought of butchering the English language in such a dreadful way. It doesn't take that much more effort to write out the actual words, and it sounds far better.

Answer 10

I used to find it very annoying to see misspellings all over the place. But then, I have to remember that English is an evolving (well whadever) tongue. I very much enjoy the nuances of different dialects, especially some of our Irish ones.
However I cringe when I have to listen to football commentators onslaught on the language. Have they no respect for their audiences.

Answer 11

I've found most people just can't be bothered to try anymore! Most of the people I work with will write something then give it to me to check it, instead of trying to correct it themselves or even use a spell checker. Sometimes the way they talk is the same, they will be corrected but they don't care and carry on saying the wrong thing. e.g 'They borrowed it to me' instead of 'They lent it to me'. Believe me you are not alone in finding this thoroughly annoying!