literacy and the internet. Due to the sudden outburst of the internet in the 90s, it seems that modes of communication have improved greatly. However, it seems that because modes of communication have moved to keyboards rather than voices or pens, that literacy and spelling ability has since gotten worse. Is the spell-check feature more harmful than helpful? Is the world society becoming more "dumb" because of its ease and convenience? –grosenbaum

I wouldn't say that society is becoming dumb because that is kind of harsh. However, I do believe that some aspects of computer technology, such as the spell check might be making things a little too easy. It's not as if the tools are looked down upon though. Teachers used to always encourage the use of computers and things like spell check and now, to turn around and say that it is having a negative effect on society is slightly ironic. –michael

If I may deliver a quote here:
The illiterate of the future will not be the person who cannot read. It will be the person who does not know how to learn.--Alvin Toffler
It is critical to remember that illiteracy is a changing and reforming status in society. Five hundred years ago, one could be king and not know how to read and he would not be considered illiterate. I think that as the world exists today, it is not a problem for people to continue to use the tools that are available to them to communicate clearly. I only think it would be a problem for them if they tried to play Scrabble. –jeff

"Is the spell-check feature more harmful than helpful?"
-- I don't think so. It is a wonderous thing if you are writing a particularly important email and don't want to look too stupid. Having something that will check your spelling for you actually gives you a bit more confidence, I believe. --
"Is the world society becoming more "dumb" because of its ease and convenience?"
-- Not at all. It takes intelligence to invent all of these things that give us more ease and convenience. In some ways, such as spelling, people may be less knowledgable, but in other ways, like technology, people in this day and age are much more capable than people even 10 years ago. –- –sandee

I think that the spell-check might actually help more people to converse with others better, and it could also help people to learn the right spellings of some words. It doesn't necessarily mean that in the days when people didn't have computers, the literacy rate was higher simply because people wrote instead of typed. Also, I don't think that society has become more dumb simply because of that. It requires intelligence to learn how to use the computer to the best of your advantage, as well as the fact that having computers around can help people who learn better via an animated aid or ways that are different from the past. Other than that, with people conversing more via the internet, it makes it more important that people have better spelling abilities to ensure that they get the right idea across to others. –li

It's taken me a while to decide what my position on this is. I have many opinions on what has changed the world for the worse, and the internet isn't really one of them. Let me tell you something about spell check. Someone can write an extremely LONG complicated letter, say to their boss, claiming that they will need a raise, or promotion or whatever. If that person writes it, and ONLY uses spell check, their composition could look very similar to this:

Deer Boss,
Eye and look for word to me knew job. I wood bee very good at it. Blah, Blah, and so forth...

Look at the sentence, would spell check point out ANY of those words as being incorrect? No, but do you think the employee is going to get the promotion? No because he looks like a MORON. What would his excuse be "but I used spell check" People need to take the information that they are given in school, expand on it, and use their own brain to make sure that it is right. It is the old addage, if you want something done right, do it yourself. –alison

I am in 100% agreement with you there Alison. I have been screwed over by spell check more than once. In order to use spell check, you have to know how to spell to begin with. Spell check is a tool designed to make editing slightly easier on us, however, it does not and should not substitute peer/self editing. –michael

Well my $0.02, here it is (In Canadian of course). Well I can't disagree with what has already been said about our little friend spell check. It is great to use, but to be honest I will avoid using it half the time anyways on long papers, because I know that it is probably going to miss something anyways. I do think that spell check can help for those individuals who use it a lot because if they see a word that they repeatedly spell wrong over and over, be corrected over and over, then eventually they should be able to start spelling that word correctly. What exactly is meant by the term "dumb"? I think the world has become a lot more lazy in the last...ohhh...50 years. Calculators, spell checks, fast food, internet banking. All of these things are great but they tend to make us a little lazy. Or maybe I am just talking about me! I think though that since we are mainly in agreement here I will talk a little bit more about the internet and its effects. One thing that really concerns me is the ease of access to 'anything' on the internet for kids. Lets face it, many kids know so much more about the computer in their household, than their parent. If a child, or youth, gets on a computer they are not going to have a difficult time finding violence, pornography...anything at all, on the internet and many parents don't know enough about the internet and computer safety to be able to regulate what their children see. This is what frightens me about the ability to find information easily on the internet. It is a powerful tool for education and information but it is also being powerfully used to send information out to people, whether they be children or not, that is harmful. –joel

Good theory regarding viewing the misspelled word over and over and then correcting it, but it is not accurate. We have all agreed (moreorless) that spellcheck may be handy at times, but that a basis in spelling is needed before hand. We've also said that spell check has made things easier for lazy people. With that said, I hereby disagree to the above statement made by Joel! Lazy people do not care! Therefore, because it is so simple to point and click the first word on the spell check list (which is more often than not the correctly spelled word) that is all that is done! Most people, "lazy people" will not look for the correct spelling regardless. "The computer must be right and so I'll just keep clicking" is the attitude that I assume these lazy people would have. Whether or not they spell the word correctly is not of any concern. They have been through the motions and when they spell it incorrectly again the next time, the spell checker will correct it again, as it always has. –michael

Yes Michael you have a good point about lazy people, however that is assuming that all people who use spell check are lazy. I use spell check and although I have been called lazy I don't consider myself so. Anyways, when I use spellcheck I have to watch every word that is being corrected because I know that spellcheck is fallible as well. By doing so I get to brush up on my spelling skills as well as prove that I am smarter than a computer in some cases. Both of which are helpful to me -joel

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