Why can people no longer spell?

Question

Why can (mainly young) people no longer spell? I think it's terrible, personally, that basic grammar is a foreign language to a lot of people. Is this because of abbreviations we use for Mobile 'texting'? Or perhaps because people no longer write letters and need to use correct grammar? Even on email people use abbreviations (e.g. l8r, coz, etc...)

In Chat/Ideas Forums on the Net I rarely read anything that is spelled correctly. I think it's a shame.

Answer 1

It is the influence of texting, I believe. Things change, though, whether we like it or not. I remember flunking typing class twice because I couldn't keep from looking at the keys, now, with computers, it is almost required. Go figure.

Answer 2

You are right and it's terrible.

Another answerer is also correct - it takes too long to work out what the abbreviations mean. Anything that makes it harder for us to understand each other is a backward step. It's also discourteous.

It's not just the young kids who are at fault.
It's at every level, and every person who accepts the mistakes are "enabling" this to continue.

How many businesses abuse language - buy our "sox", etc. And when did pants become "pant" (do they only have one leg now?)

One pet peeve is 'definitely' spelled as "definately"; and this is often from people I would have considered reasonably well educated.

And the one that really gets me riled is "it's" used as the third person singular possessive. "It's" ALWAYS means "it is". The apostrophe is a mark of a contraction, or shortening, of "it is" to "it's". The possessive doesn't have the apostrophe. His, hers, its - how hard is that?

Does it matter? I can hear the kids saying "get a life". Yes it matters. Good communication always matters. Will they only be happy once we're reduced to just grunts, like monkeys? Don't have to spell those!

Answer 3

i think you have the right opinion with a mixture of both. I am a manager and was going through job applications the other day it was amazing how many personnel statements contained the following

B4 GSOH L8R


all shorting sayings and even worse were things such as

thinkin wantd u

there is a time and a place for these but needless to say they did not make it to interview

Answer 4

I am quite pleased that on most of the forums I contribute to, a "txt" style post will result in immediate deletion.

I still find it quicker on my mobile phone to use predictive text and write the text properly instead of abbreviating every other word.

It's the latest generation of youngsters that require information instantly. They have an attention span that can only be measured in nano-seconds.

Answer 5

In some cases, because people no longer read a lot to see the correct spelling of words in the books, etc. they are reading. This only applies to those people with native talent for spelling, because I know several bookworms who cannot spell so the relationship is not completely 100% positive.

For the rest, your guess is as good as mine.

Answer 6

There are a lot of people who are lazy. It's much easier to say "bc" than "because" or "l8r" than "later." Texting and chat obviously contribute to it, but there's not much you can do about that.

It's not all young people, though. I'm 16 and I use correct grammar.

Answer 7

It is particularly important to avoid 'text speak' when writing mathematical questions and answers.

If i let u be the speed of a moving object and i is the square root of -1 how do u ... ?

We nevertheless use appropriate abbreviations such as 'sqrt' in the interest of speed and convencience because of the typographical limitations of Yahoo Answers.

Answer 8

With the advent of spellcheck and the promotion of time saving behavior most people just take the easiest path.

Answer 9

u think its a shame? thats cuz ur old school. shortening a text supposedly saves time but u spend the same alot of time waiting for the other person to decipher your message before u can respond. but most phrases are conversation friendly like "ttyl" it has nothing to do with correct grammer these kids can spell some even better than you

Answer 10

You are correct . That is the exact reason for it . And may I say , I am very happy that I do not understand these at all ! (e.g. l8r, coz, etc...) Yippie for me - I win .