A Simply Enchanted Life

This post is out of the norm for me but I had to post it. This is spurred by my own daughter typing “u” and “2” rather than “you” and “too.” Now, this post isn’t meant to call her out or embarrass her but as a mother I feel it is my job to do what is best for her. Good habits and knowing how to spell are skills that I want her to excel at. Yes, I have threatened to deactivate her facebook if she cannot spell common words correctly. I surely do not want anyone to think I’m raising a child that cannot spell a simple word such as “you.”

Now, grammar is not my strong suit. In fact, if my life depended on knowing that this blog post is grammatically correct—I would skip on posting it. However, this is beyond the issue of grammar. This is common and basic knowledge; at least I hope it is. A person may say that it is easier to type this way or that they do know better but do it anyway. It is a poor excuse, in my opinion. I have seen people shorten “people” to “ppl” and “thanks” to “thx” or “probably” to “prolly.” The truth is, when you dumb yourself down to typing this way it is building up a repetitive action that enforces such mispellings, making it easier each and every time that you do it.

Now, I know there are cases in gaming where an acronym may be better suited than typing out a long word, such as saying “wts” rather than “wanting to sell” or “lfg” rather than looking for group—these are rare situations where an acronym is acceptable based on chat length or to span language differences so to speak—a person from France may not know what I’m saying to them in game but still has the knowledge to know to ask for a group by saying “lfg.” I am even guilty of using "lol" in game and in chat—at least it is an acronym and not blatant disregard of spelling. Although, after my rant, I am sure someone is sure to point out the hypocrisy in that. We’ll leave this portion of the discussion for another day!

What I am complaining about is your daily grind of living and typing with netspeak, on facebook, twitter or via text. Habits are enforced by repetitiveness and if one continually reinforces “u” then that is eventually going to be the acceptable way to spell it. I do not want this for my daughter. You don’t have to be an English professor or have the best grammar in the world to know how to spell “you.” It really isn’t that hard to type two more letters and it keeps you from looking as if you need to go back to preschool. It truly is a shame that we spend so much time teaching children in their early years to spell correctly and then throw it away by not correcting their netspeak.

This is me as a parent taking the pledge to revoke my child’s facebook and texting privileges for abusing the education that I have been encouraging her to take seriously for the last six years. She knows the consequences will be a week without the internet for her next offense. I encourage you to take a stand as well! We will build our child’s self-esteem and confidence by building up their vocabulary. You wouldn’t let your child make a fool of themselves on a regular basis in public, right? Because that is exactly what they’re doing on facebook…take a stand and say no to netspeak!