LarryB13 (Arizona)
Posts: 4,099
Posts: 4,099
Posted:
Even though it is a few weeks early, my 2015 New Year's Resolution is to stamp out any and all forms of auto-spelling or auto-completion programs.
Just today, a well-known and usually literate contributor here posted a message in which the word "convenient" had been inserted where the context would imply that "covenant" would have been correct. In the next sentence there was mention of things that "aren't permuted" instead of "aren't permitted."
This is not a problem limited to this site. Facebook is far worse. Nor is any one person guiltier than anyone else. (Except for me, of course.) I have written several times that, "Auto-text programs are making us all look like idioms."
We have all used the wrong word at one time or another, such as writing insure when we mean ensure as one example. But the problem created by the current crop of gadgets with auto-writing impedes communication rather than helps it. It leaves the reader or recipient scratching their heads to figure out what the writer meant. The words inserted by the devices are often not even close to the proper word. I would rather read a message with the proper words spelled incorrectly than read one with correctly-spelled incorrect words.
I hate to say this, but it also makes the writer look kind of stupid and lazy. Stupid because they chose to allow their smart phone or other device to insert the wrong word and lazy because it is readily apparent that they did not bother to read what they wrote before sharing their message with the world.
Please do not use those automatic text programs to destroy what little civilization we have left. If you cannot bypass one at least proofread what you wrote before you post.
Just today, a well-known and usually literate contributor here posted a message in which the word "convenient" had been inserted where the context would imply that "covenant" would have been correct. In the next sentence there was mention of things that "aren't permuted" instead of "aren't permitted."
This is not a problem limited to this site. Facebook is far worse. Nor is any one person guiltier than anyone else. (Except for me, of course.) I have written several times that, "Auto-text programs are making us all look like idioms."
We have all used the wrong word at one time or another, such as writing insure when we mean ensure as one example. But the problem created by the current crop of gadgets with auto-writing impedes communication rather than helps it. It leaves the reader or recipient scratching their heads to figure out what the writer meant. The words inserted by the devices are often not even close to the proper word. I would rather read a message with the proper words spelled incorrectly than read one with correctly-spelled incorrect words.
I hate to say this, but it also makes the writer look kind of stupid and lazy. Stupid because they chose to allow their smart phone or other device to insert the wrong word and lazy because it is readily apparent that they did not bother to read what they wrote before sharing their message with the world.
Please do not use those automatic text programs to destroy what little civilization we have left. If you cannot bypass one at least proofread what you wrote before you post.
