In an age of ever-developing technology, we rely heavily on things like autocorrect. With everyone typing away so fast on their keyboards it is hard to find someone who actually takes the time to make sure their texts are one hundred percent grammatically correct. As an English major, it is assumed that I am an expert on grammar and all things with it. That couldn't be farther from the truth, as I struggle with grammar on most occasions. I've noticed that I have a lot better sentence structure when I physically write things on pen and paper. However, with everything being shifted online – I am ashamed that my grammar has gotten so bad. I know for a fact that sometimes it isn't my fault. For example, I was tweeting something out and I was halfway down the line when I saw Siri auto correct "well" to "we'll." Yes, the iPhone assistant literally made my sentence grammatically incorrect when its job is to do the opposite. Since that day, I took a vow. I made the decision few people can make; I turned off my auto-correct on my iPhone.
At first, it was a struggle, mainly because I would forget that Siri wasn't actively correcting all my other words and I would have to manually tap and fix them, which can get annoying when I've written out a long exposition. Another hindrance I found was me physically typing – as sometimes my big fingers would click on multiple words and my sentence would be worst then I originally intended. I was typing in a group chat once and I didn't realize till after I sent it that my sentence was terribly written.
As being someone who is constantly typing papers for school, articles, or Batman facts on Instagram – I am glad that I have taken a more proactive role in checking my word usage. I've noticed with each passing year; people are becoming more and more illiterate when it comes to writing. Language obviously changes and there's that whole discussion about linguistics but currently, in this day and age, it makes people look stupid. One of the most powerful tools an individual can have is their intelligence and to let it go to waste would be a travesty. I mean look at the people protesting the stay at home orders in the US, not a bunch of bright minds in that crowd.
In conclusion, I challenge all of you to turn off your autocorrect for at least a week. You'll start to notice an improvement in no time. If you are still hesitant, you can try and see if your Siri is misspelling your words on purpose like mine. Nothing is more toxic than having a misspelled Instagram/TikTok caption or tweet and getting called out on it, and no one wants that.
