re: making fun of people for grammar and spelling errors
Here’s the thing, folks. Tumblr is global. And for a lot of people out there – quite possibly the majority of people out there – English is not their first language. So please be mindful of that if you feel the urge to make fun of someone’s comment on something posted on my blog. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll spell-check a fuckboy Anon or a hater Anon with gusto and skill, but for fuck’s sake, when a person is making a perfectly innocuous comment and it’s obvious that their English is not perfect, give a little thought to the fact that, for them, English might be a foreign language and they are working hard to do the best they can with what is, by universal agreement, a convoluted motherfucker of a language. I have a fair bit of French thanks to 4 extended vacations there over the years, but I guaran-damn-tee if I were on a French-language blog, my comments would be clunky and riddled with spelling errors. So, when in doubt, be kind. Okay?
I love this. In my opinion, it’s not just for those who have English as a secondary language, either. About 20% of the US adult population is considered functionally illiterate. If it’s 1 in 5, think about how many people you must know who fit that bill, probably without you even recognizing it because they try to hide it out of shame. If someone has misspellings or grammar trouble it doesn’t necessarily mean they are lazy or simply not trying. They may have a much harder time than you do. I have a parent who I have written checks for, filled out doctors and tax forms for, and so on, since I was in middle school because they are functionally illiterate. It broke my heart when I realized as a teenager that they only order menu items that have photos, and the reason they hate driving out of our general area is because they struggle with the road signs they haven’t memorized. When reading is a challenge it makes SO much of life a challenge. Don’t be a jerk and make their life harder by shaming them. Sorry for the side rant but it’s just one of those personal things for me.
Reblogging for @amysubmits‘ add on.
And not to be particularly nettlesome but there’s also fucking autocorrect! Which on my stupid fucking phone gleefully swaps “you’re” when I want “your” and then swaps “you’re” when I want to “your!”
There’s also the little issue that if you’ve got a nice erotic Tumblr blog your correspondent may be typing, um, one handed. And may have their minds more on t&a than p’s and q’s.
Finally, don’t be someone who aggressively advocates for tolerances of everybody’s kink while goosestepping about their grammar (plus syntax, spelling, usage, punctuation, Oxford commas, spaces after periods…)
