Growing up, I always was very particular about the language I used to portray the message I intended, and how those sentences were put together. In the third grade, I got second place in my school-wide spelling bee and it has always irked me when people do not value words and how to use them.
That is why I will never forget the first time someone called me out for being a "grammar Nazi." I was texting this boy I really liked in high school and kindly corrected his incorrect usage of "your" instead of "you're" (I even followed the correction with a smiley face emoji). He told me that I knew what he meant and that I needed to lighten up about his spelling. To me, this was the most unpleasant response I could have received. I was so excited about sharing my knowledge, and he went and crushed my 15-year-old dreams.
Okay, I do understand that it can be irritating when someone is always correcting everything you do, but this wasn't a reoccurrence, and I genuinely thought I was being informative. Since this incident, I have taken a vow with myself that I won't change, and that I will just embrace being a "Grammar Nazi".
This isn't because I want to be a jerk. It isn't because I think I am better than you. But grammar is one thing that I have always cared about, therefore I am not going to pretend to be incompetent or struggle to read what you are writing simply because you do not like to be corrected. Don't get me wrong, I am not going to go out of my way to proofread every text you've written, but if there is a glaring error, I will be sure to point it out.
Not only is it super irritating to put up with grammatical ignorance, but it is unprofessional. Although you may not need to be professional when sending memes to your bestie, it is a really good skill to have and be in the habit of practicing. It really doesn't take that much more time to put the apostrophe in the right place.
Not only is it extremely unprofessional, but using the wrong grammar and making no attempt to correct it makes you look less intelligent than you probably are. It is one thing if you truly don't understand the difference, but when you get mad when you are corrected, it becomes more than just a lack of knowledge; it becomes a lack of effort. Being corrected can be really embarrassing, but it can be avoided if you make a conscious effort to try to speak insightfully.
So to those of you who do not value grammar and spelling the same way I do, and that is a lot of you, I advise you to think of it from our word-loving perspective. We aren't trying to be mean or embarrass you, but we take pleasure in informing our friends of the differences between there, their, and they're and how to properly use the Oxford Comma. I know that I have a reputation for being a grammar perfectionist, but it still hurts when people make that out to be a bad thing. Language is important, and I am passionate about it, so I will never apologize for correcting your grammar.