Spelling on the Internet is atrocious. Why?

Well, here in Brazil happens the same thing, seems it's a global bad habit, I can see. Many people here and there do the same question on spelling the words rightly on YA or internet (including myself).

In my humble opinion, it's a compound of a bit of laziness, with bad learning (not necessarily bad schools), ignorance (don't know how to use the spelling checker tools) and they intend to look "cool" by using ghetto language.

So far as I know, here in Brazil, the public schools do teach spelling and grammar, but the truth is that some (or maybe the most of) pupils aren't motivated or give a damn to all of it. Sad reality.

It was a big surprise to verify that the same thing occurs in your country, although, I guess, on a different level.

Anyway, I did study all of my life in public schools, made a degree on civil engineering, then a post-graduation on computer science etc. As one of my extra-disciplinary activities I teach myself the English language, very useful since I'm into the technological area, as you could see.

I'm not obsessive-compulsive but it bothers me when I miss a grammatical or punctual error on a text, because I know how to do the right spelling, although some typos can get your way in all the time, then I run the spell checker when I finish.

The use of acronyms and abbreviations are legitimate forms of writing, we all know this, but what they use on internet has no paradigm or standard, on most cases they form a mutant dialect itself.

Finally, I was a child pre-Internet, so I did my education and learning based on books, which are almost always well edited (fortunately), conversely the stuff on the most content on Internet that aren't correctly spelled, isn't a pity?

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Spelling on the Internet is atrocious. Why?

Are the people who appear not to be able to spell really not capable or are they just too lazy to be bothered with correcting their typing mistakes? Do schools not teach spelling now? But more importantly, why has being ignorant become something to be proud of?

This is a serious question, so...

Well, English is notoriously difficult to spell and read because spelling doesn't correspond to pronunciation.

Thus, spelling is a problem even for native speakers. I know how to spell well because I read a lot of books when I was a child and I was able to memorize the words. But I also know many, many native speakers who can't spell to save their lives.

Fortunately for me, I was a child BEFORE the advent of the Internet. Books are almost always well edited.

As we all know, most content on the Internet is not well edited. So kids who read stuff on the Internet may believe that what they are reading is correctly spelled.

Also, grammar as taught in the USA is on the decline. But, interestingly enough, most kids are technically proficient these days. I can't operate an IPod to save my life (but I can program computers!)

Also, chat rooms and message boards are like informal slang conversations. People feel that getting the message across is more important than how the message is presented. That's why people type in CAPS or in all lower case--efficiency.

Finally, grammar and the concentration and discipline needed to learn it well are all on the decline and are not the focus in US schools anymore. It's all about testing for benchmarks so schools can receive money.

Step into a crowd and look around. These are the same people that you are interacting with on line.

They come from all walks of life and all have different degrees of education! Most of them probably aren't aware of spell check and would consider it a waste of time because when the correct spelling is shown to them, they wouldn't know if it's right or not!

I think it's a good example of America dumbing down. Yes. It is atrocious that even after eight years of school someone could lack the skills to ask a simple question, using correct grammar and at very least using spell check.

It's scary, isn't it!

Probably the latter. Some people can't be bothered to spell correctly.

I've noticed that some people are being more ignorant than before, maybe it's just a trend and it'll will blow over, maybe not. I hope it does, though. Correctly spelled questions and answers are clearer and more entertaining to read.

And even then, Yahoo Answers has a Spell Checker built into their answering system. If everyone would use it, which I assume is not happening at the moment, it'll take care of a lot of spelling errors on Y!A.

I type very quickly and see no purpose to fix any of my misspellings because the internet is a casual medium.

If I was writing a resume, I would be neat and careful.

If I was typing something in a conversation, I wouldn't take the time to correct it unless it was totally incomprehensible. I try my best to be neat, but I slip up and when I do, I don't care.

Being judged on the internet is something I don't worry about. I don't use abbreviations and I don't leave out letters purposely and I don't type like My WoRdS ArE HaViNg A SeIzUrE.

The internet is casual and there is nobody to grade you on spelling and ban you from the internet until you learn.

You have a great point. I have seen notes come home from school where teachers don't even know how to spell. I think that sometimes schools are a little bit lax in their teaching skills. Sometimes when people don't spell it indicates a learning disability or dyslexia.

For the most part, maybe it really is laziness or a need for a parent to sit at the child's side and work with them OR even a need for the child to put the video games down, get away from the computer, get rid of the MP3 players and wii's and all that crap and STUDY.

That is how I made it through school, I STUDIED . If I didn't study, I didn't go outside to play.

How Do You Spell Internet

They're too lazy. Then again, when chatting with friends or acquaintances on MySpace, Facebook, or chat rooms, why do they need to take the time to spell correctly? "Chat-speak" is quicker and easier to use, which gives you maximum chat time with minimum effort.

That being said, I agree with you on the fact that "chat-speak" does not belong all over the Internet. It should stay on the chat rooms. But this generation is constantly texting and chatting. It's what we do. You have to remember, we grew up like this. So, occasionally, we slip up and use chat-speak elsewhere on the Internet or in real life. Some do it more than others.

Unfortunately, there's not much to be done about it. You'll just have to try to figure out what we're saying and go with that. =)

People don't take the time to look over their spelling, never the less try to spell it correctly the first time. Also people use internet slang and leet speak for what reasons, I do not know. Originally internet slang was used to make typing faster but some of the newer words take more time to type than the original word(s). It's unnecessary and just downright horrible for the readers!