Check Yourself

I don't know if anyone else has been having this problem with Blogger in the last couple of days, but for some reason my spell-check button hasn't been working. At first, because I think rather highly of myself, I simply assumed that when the program didn't highlight any words it wanted me to look at it was because I had no spelling issues. However, I was writing something the other day and had to use a proper last name. Even though the name was spelled correctly, it still should have been highlighted, because there is no reason for it to be part of spell-check database of words. (As an aside, I am always fascinated to see which names make the cut versus which names the computer doesn't recognize. For example: Navratilova is in there, Francona is not. That has to be the real sign about the level of fame you've achieved fame in life. Either that or programmers are tennis fans.) Anyway, this sent my antenna up and I started combing through the rest of the post to see if there were other words where I wasn't aware I had screwed up as I had type them. I discovered several, which prompted me to cut and paste the document onto a different program to make sure I had gotten them all (and I hadn't). It was at this point that I came to realize a very sad truth - I might suck at spelling.

At first I was kind of happy to see the spell checker wasn't working because I like a challenge. My goal of every post is to have there be no spelling errors to correct so in some regards this was like getting the thrill of working without a net. But, then I couldn't figure out how to spell one word or another and began to get frustrated. I think we all have words which, for one reason or another, we never spell correctly on the first attempt. (My word is supposedly. I have no idea why that word troubles me so much, but it does.) On top of that, since I always find one or two things I want to change after I have hit 'Publish' anyway, I found myself wishing the program could just reassure me of the spelling so it would be one less thing to worry about. Also, without the knowledge that the spell-checker would have my back I started to doubt myself. I think every one of us has had the experience of writing something down and then telling ourselves that the word just looks wrong, but at the same time we can't figure out how else the word could possibly be spelled. Well, I was having that problem just about every paragraph. Suddenly I was no longer enjoying the challenge of working without any backup.

I can't totally be blamed for a deterioration in my spelling abilities, because technology has made it possible to be a really bad speller and still function in today's society. Between auto-correct on people's phones and spell-checkers on their computers (Google Chrome checks your spelling no matter what program you are running without you even having to ask it to), unless you are one of those kids who wants to be a spelling bee champion you don't need to be a great speller to fool people into thinking you are one. At this point, the only reason to have a lot of spelling errors in a document is out of pure laziness. (I think this is why people writing in text speak, i.e., just using the letter U instead of typing out the word you, drives me extra crazy. This is also why I avoid most websites' comment sections.) This is the same line of thinking which has made us all have a terrible sense of direction thanks to so many easily-available GPS systems. If you get lost in today's world you either wanted to get lost or need to upgrade your data plan. I can only assume it is just a matter of time before a grammar-check program becomes standard issue because, while they are out there, they aren't nearly as wide-spread as I would have expected them to be by now. As someone who types fast and doesn't always catch it when I type "form" in a place where I meant to type "from", it probably can't get here soon enough.

Now, as an editor I'm ten times harder on my own work than I am on anyone else's. Also, most of the stuff on the internet isn't exactly crucial to mankind, which is why I'm not going to kill anyone for having a few missed words here or there. Still, letting people go through life as terrible spellers who rely on technology to catch their mistakes probably isn't a good precedent going forward. Because while there are plenty of people like me out there who get annoyed when we make spelling errors and thus try to catch them before the computer does, there is most likely an entire generation of people out there who don't worry about getting the spelling of words correct on the first attempt, confident they can go back and let the spell-check feature take care of any mistakes they have made. That's fine most of the time, but what is going to happen to those people when they need to write something at the last minute and don't have time to spell-check their work? Or, as has been happening to me, what will happen when the spell-check program simply doesn't feel like working that day? It's a recipe for disaster. We'd better just hope they aren't working on anything important the day that happens. It would suck for a world peace treaty to fall apart because one intern couldn't remember how to spell nuclear.