# Blame your poor spelling on the internet.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blame-your-poor-spelling-on-the-internet/41566>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [November 17, 2000, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blame-your-poor-spelling-on-the-internet/41566 "2000-11-17T06:28:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\
**Post date:** [November 17, 2000, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blame-your-poor-spelling-on-the-internet/41566/1 "2000-11-17T06:28:09Z")

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Has your spelling deteriorated since you first went on line? Back before the internet, most of the time I encountered a word, it was spelled correctly. Now, I encounter words spelled every which way, and my brain is getting used to the misspellings. Has anyone else noticed this?

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**Author:** ![MattTheCroc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/439d5e/32.png) [@MattTheCroc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MattTheCroc)\
**Post date:** [November 17, 2000, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blame-your-poor-spelling-on-the-internet/41566/2 "2000-11-17T08:02:12Z")

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Well, _my_ spelling would be getting better, since I’m doing more of it. But I read over my posts and correct any glaring mistakes. Many don’t.

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**Author:** ![MattTheCroc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/439d5e/32.png) [@MattTheCroc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MattTheCroc)\
**Post date:** [November 17, 2000, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blame-your-poor-spelling-on-the-internet/41566/3 "2000-11-17T08:03:27Z")

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More writing, that is. And I just noticed I have a snooty attitude in that post. Disregard.

Move along, move along… 🙂

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**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\
**Post date:** [November 17, 2000, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blame-your-poor-spelling-on-the-internet/41566/4 "2000-11-17T08:16:57Z")

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I think mine has a little bit. Everyone uses the American spelling for stuff online but since I’m Canadian I’m supposed to spell some words different. Well whenever I work on stuff in English class I usually spell stuff (like color instead of colour) wrong. I just don’t get why we have to spell things differently like that _shrugs_

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**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\
**Post date:** [November 17, 2000, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blame-your-poor-spelling-on-the-internet/41566/5 "2000-11-17T20:02:41Z")

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Yes, well, typographical errors are my own fault, of course, (although I keep inventing words that I rather like) but, like **TopazAntares** , I find that I see so much U.S. spelling that I shall end up confused. N.B. that is NOT, of course, the same as spelling getting worse, but I also see words like “weird” spelled oddly so often that I sometimes have to pause and remind myself how it normally goes.

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**Author:** ![Suo\_Na](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@Suo\_Na](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suo_Na)\
**Post date:** [November 17, 2000, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blame-your-poor-spelling-on-the-internet/41566/6 "2000-11-17T22:13:37Z")

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The Canadian/American spelling thing is why, in another thread, I said I’ve adopted British spelling in self-defense. There’s no way that five years ago I’d have spelled “socialise” with an “s”. I can’t remember what Canadian spelling is, because it’s neither one nor the other. Next thing you know I’ll start calling the last letter of the alphabet “zee”.

I would expect, though, that spelling in general would improve with exposure to computers. After all, they can’t infer what you meant; you have to spell out URLs and commands perfectly to get any results.

[anecdote]  
When we first got a computer my mom would frequently mistype DOS commands. When I corrected her spelling once, she replied, “It knows what I mean!”. Nuh-uh, mom, computers are stupid.  
[/anecdote]