To be horrified by the poor spelling and grammar on social media?

[PuzzledObserver]

In the past 24 hours, I have tutted at the following gems across a range of social media, including MN:-

• per say (per se)
• should of (should have)
• to all intense purposes (to all intents and purposes)
• that player is literally on fire (I do hope she isn’t)

Granted that autocorrect sometimes gets it wrong, not all posters are native speakers of English and there are regional variations.... but AIBU to hope that anyone who has completed their education in the UK can actually write in correct English?

MrsFrisby Only if you've totally bought into the 'education is everything' paradigm. There are other views on life out there, different lived experiences. Believe it or not you can choose to ignore your responses to 'bad' spelling and grammar, to retrain yourself to look for the actual semiotic meaning behind the written words. It's a skill, and an empathetic one at that.

We only value good spelling/grammar because that was what we were taught to value by the power structures of society around us. It's actually quite liberating to discard that somewhat restrictive mantle.

Err, right. Well, good luck with job applications and job interviews to those who rebel through the power of incorrect spelling. Its also quite liberating to have fluency in the written word so to hand that you can do it without effort, and it certainly helps with learning other languages.

There are many ways of looking behind the lines of the written word, but endorsing bad spelling isn't a particularly useful one. Its clearly not a skill you have in abundance either because in my line of work I look for those little clues that suggest, shall we say, questionable intent all the time. But I see that you value little pedantic arguments on internet discussion groups in order to show your rebellious streak, and that's not something I'm into, so have fun with it! You show those correct spellers who's boss!

Bugger... it's too easy to hit post by mistake on an iPad. Anyway, US spellings - I sometimes use a US spellchecker as that's the standard for my work. My UK one on the PC kept trying to 'correct' sulfide to sulphide (sulfide is the IUPAC standard). Well, that was fun to type on an iPad. It tried very hard to correct sulfide - it tried self-identifying, sullied and Sufism but not sulphide!

'Sneak peak' is a massive bugbear of mine... It's PEEK FFS!

Bleh

Have you thought that for many people on here, it isn't their first language?

YABU. We are conversing. I think you probably understand what people are saying?

Terrible attitude

Haha OP. You and a lot of others seem incredibly impolite.

interviews to those who rebel through the power of incorrect spelling But that's not what we're talking about here, we're talking about social media.

you value little pedantic arguments on internet discussion groups in order to show your rebellious streak Maybe true, but not because I'm rebellious, but partly because I went on to study applied linguistics, where we were encouraged to think much more about context and communicative intent, and partly because I have a child, who is never going to be able to spell and use grammar 'correctly'. Being his parent has really made me question and think about education and its 'value', to question my own thoughts/beliefs about literacy and its importance, and made me realise (through him, and the other children I meet in his peer group) that communication comes in many different packages.

OooErMissus
Ffs!
That suddenly feels worryingly apt for the thread.

MrsFrisbyMouse
I agree, context is everything.
If someone uses the wrong there/their/they're on social media, yes it's incorrect but do I care enough to bitch about it or correct them? No. I understand what they mean and if it's unclear then the principle of charity usually helps.

One of my pet hates is seeing 'yous' or worse 'youse' for the plural of you. I'd never comment on it on social media or in person because to do so isn't needed.

I spend my working week marking for literacy and can't quite find it in my enough to care enough about someone's social media posting to nitpick over errors. I always feel that there's either something smug about people who do that or they are running out of useful discussion replies but want to make someone else seem small. Correcting SPaG online (unless it's amusing) seems to be all about the corrector puffing their chest out.

YANBU! It really really irritates me and I (thought I was) am usually quite tolerant.

Especially because the vast majority of mumsnetters are English or, at least, British and should know their own language better than the lands they conquered and insisted take their language.

I do judge though. If I start reading an OP and they use could of/should of, etc or gonna or an (meaning and) I leave it. I think: you're not worth my reading time . Yes, I am a bit ashamed of my superior notions especially as my own punctuation and grammar is not perfect, but I grew up speaking two languages: the language of my country and that of its oppressor. The oppressor which now can't even speak its own properly.

Oh yes! I'd take the high ground if it weren't that my own grammar is so completely atrocious

My grammar isn't perfect but I do find the following annoying:

I've bin wandering (been wondering)
Carn't (can't)
Announcement that child is going to grammer school (clearly not genetic then!)

One of my pet hates is seeing 'yous' or worse 'youse' for the plural of you

That may be a rendering of dialect usage. Would you hate it if e.g. a Scot did something analogous?

It’s social media not a letter to the Queen
Yabu

ErrolTheDragon
It is local dialect. When spoken it doesn't bother me, but written down it really annoys me. It's a pet hate, but I would never comment negatively online to someone or correct someone on it because doing so would be smug and irritating.

Well, good luck with job applications and job interviews to those who rebel through the power of incorrect spelling

Well confusing social media with a job application is quite an unfortunate error wouldn’t you say?

Well, I'm glad theres a purpose to it MrsFrisby. But for most people, good writing skills can be used for a lot of purposes. Not everyone is equipped with the ability to read between the lines and often, certain meaning is required that only comes with the beauty of concise writing.

I don't want to sound too pedantic. I actually don't mind regional or dialectical variations, because they are often grammatically correct in their own context. Sometimes more so. Standard English has lost the difference between thou and thee, Yorkshire and some other dialects have not. Non-standard English retains all sorts of meanings that can be inferred e.g. the familiarity of "thon" or "yon" object as opposed to the more distant "that".

But I "loose" and "lose" confused really does turn my stomach.

@newmomof1 A terminal ellipses can have 4 dots....

Just wanted to throw my two cents in and say that I’m severely dyslexic and I still manage quite well.

I just take a little extra time to compose and check my post before, well, posting it.

I have been called out by coworkers in the past for, apparently, acting like an elitist when it comes to spelling (I’m not so good with Grammar but do try) and one told me off for being potentially offensive to dyslexic people when I commented that people in my workplace should proof read before sending company emails. Especially when we were the correspondence division of said company.

She wasn’t able to form much more of an argument after I explained that I am in fact, dyslexic and dyscalculic. Still, extra concerted effort and proof reading usually does the trick for me.

I’m not so fussed by spelling and grammar in a non-professional environment though 😊

Still abysmal with numbers, DH is helping me with that. I dread the day my DC are of school age and bring their Maths homework to me 😨

I wouldn't worry about it, I have a masters degree in a very writing intensive subject and I still write like shite on social media/in texts.
Think about the way you speak, the way certain accents drop parts of words or frame sentences in ways completely differently to that way you would on paper.
Social media isnt about writing correctly, it's a stand in for face to face communication. If you dont talk with perfect grammar then you probably wont use perfect grammar in that sort of environment either.

I work in a very writing-intensive environment, so to me, dropping apostrophes from words like 'don't' and 'won't' actually takes more concentration than leaving them in.

Proper spelling and grammar matters greatly for business and professional purposes. I support it's preservation.

On social media I don't see why it matters at all. It's the equivalent of having a casual conversation. Why do you care? It's a bit like when English people say "I was sat there". Do you really correct them mid conversation? That seems like a dickhead thing to do. It's a colloquialism and as long as it doesn't move into their professional language then it doesn't matter.

Horrified 🙄
Fuck me-dramatic enough love?!

I absolutely agree, OP, and there is definitely something wrong with the British education system. I have posted about this subject before and had loads of people giving me reasons why it’s acceptable on social media, it’s to do with language evolving, etc etc.

I appreciate that social media is a place to relax on grammar and to use more colloquial language; I do the same.

But many British people’s posts on social media are barely understandable and I am often skipping past them or reading them more than once to try and make sense of what they’re trying to say.

I live as an expat in a mixed international community, and it is really striking on our Facebook group. The Canadians, Americans, Australians and Kiwis all (generally) write easy-to-read and well-written posts, but when there are nonsensical ones, it’s always Brits.

Furthermore, I am a member of 4 health-related Facebook groups. Two are for a condition my child has (one group is American, one English) and one is for a condition that I have (one group is American, one is English).

The British can barely string a sentence together, whereas the American posts are almost entirely well written. I’ve had people on Mumsnet tell me that this is because the American health system is somehow self-selecting; that the only people who will be engaged with the health issues on a deeper level are wealthier and therefore more highly educated, which is not the case at all.

The British education system is seriously letting us down. I am all for relaxed writing styles, and making allowances for phone typing, but when you can’t actually make head or tail of what someone is trying to say, then you have a bigger problem.

The British education system is seriously letting us down. I am all for relaxed writing styles, and making allowances for phone typing, but when you can’t actually make head or tail of what someone is trying to say, then you have a bigger problem.

I have to agree. Other posters have been banging on about foreigners for whom English isn't their first language, but on the whole I find most have a better use of grammar etc than a lot of British people. We're really bad at both Maths and English teaching in this country - when other countries teach English better, it should be a great cause for concern.

For some reason its a badge of honour to be bad at spelling and maths in this country.

The problem with social media posts written badly is it can affect job prospects.

A friend of mine was recruiting for an admin assistant. CV came in well presented and seemingly worthy of an interview.

She asked me to do some internet research on said person to see what their back ground was like.

All their social posts were in txt spk with no punctuation. They never got an interview.

Maybe it was their own fault for having obvious user names and not locking down their accounts but there was no way in hell they were getting hired.

So it can matter.