Tag: blogging

Image: Grant Cochrane / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

This post published early by mistake so if you got part of it before it was finished, apologies all round for that.

If this post offends your sensibilities however, I apologise not….

I do have an issue with all the perfect specimens of the human race who make no mistakes in life, and NEVER, EVER get anything wrong.  How wonderful it must be to be so perfect.

I frequently come across tweets and messages from the grammar police, and now and again I have a whinge about it on Twitter, but to see people complaining at this time of year just seems to me to be petty and ridiculous.   I am talking about the regular, average social media user who uses the platform to socialise for whatever reason they need to use it for.

With Twitter especially, we are dealing with quickly written material that is used conversationally.  Mistakes happen.

I have to wonder just why so many of us think we are superior just because we may have a slightly better grasp on the (often odd) nuances, and finer details of our language.

What causes us to be so intolerant? Why does it irritate us so?

Would it really upset our lives if I wrote their instead of there, or wheir instead of where?  We’ll still get up tomorrow, and we’ll still be able to do what we do everyday.

If a regular tweeter puts comments and apostrophes in the wrong place on Twitter, why does it irritate so many of us?

It’s Christmas and with the New Year coming up, I’d hope that more of us would become more tolerant of our friends and acquaintances in the real world and online.

There are many reasons why online friends might struggle with where we put our commas and full stops, but does that detract from our story?

I know I would much rather read the blog of someone who has a story to tell – but has a few commas in the wrong place, than a grammatically perfect piece of self promotional drivel.

Yes, an easy reading passage with no mistakes is a joy to read, but come on, moaning about people that you think don’t even try to get it right smacks of bullying to me.

Here are 5 reasons that someone might not be able to use perfect grammar.

1-  Culture and Ethnicity
English might not be someones first language, but if they are communicating and making friends, they are successful.

2- Life Circumstances
A disability could make every word and sentence an achievement akin to climbing Mount Kilimanjaro every day for the rest of us.  What gives anyone the right to assume that everyone is able to understand and use every rule in the English grammar book.

3- Technology
Autocorrect on phones tends to have the most perfectly penned grammatical whizz make frequent mistakes.  We get faster and faster at using our gadgets and more and more often we send out the most exquisitely mistaken updates.

4 – Acronymns
Using  language for mobile phones, Twitter, or Facebook tends to become addictive and can spill over to other communication channels.  Some of us do it  by mistake and some by choice.

5 – Early Experiences
For whatever reason or lifestyle, or the way some of us have been brought up or taught – may have meant that the rules and regulations surrounding grammar and spelling may have passed someone by.

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All of the people who fall into these 5 reasons have just as much right to communicate online as the rest of us.

I don’t see why it is fair for anyone to make someone else feel inferior or bad because they are not perfect. Welcome to the real world.

And while I am at it, complaining about people who flogged their blog on Christmas Eve is just lame. No, it wasn’t directed at me, but I did see someone get upset over the tweet when it went out by a prominent blogger.   We all need to be a bit more tolerant of our fellow users.

For some, Twitter and Facebook friends are the only contact they have got in the world – remember that.

Give everyone respect for trying and for forging new friendships in our online world.

Surely there is room in the mix for all of us without resorting to playground bullying tactics.

There are situations and updates that merit concern, but I wish the perfection police would keep their own people politics private.

ps – I have not spell checked this post so I take full responsibility for any mistakes within.

Scottish Mum