Dyslexia and social media

Posted on November 21, 2014 by sjdonaldson

On Children in Need night McBusted/Mcfly drummer Harry Judd made a quip, spelt allowed as aloud and immediately he was hounded for his spelling.

It brings to light another aspect of social media and everyday life. When the pedants come out and make snarky comments, do they really know the reason behind the typo?

We’ve talked in the past about fast finger syndrome, where your fingers can’t keep up with your brain and typos occur. We’ve also talked about autocorrect (at least I think we have), and yes, we’ve probably talked about those lazy people who just don’t care. But how many people are dyslexic. And don’t tell anyone, and don’t want to tell the world because it’s none of their business or don’t realise they are dyslexic?

It’s probably more common than you think.

It’s said that 10% of the population has some degree of dyslexia. Symptoms can range from mild to severe and can happen to anyone, from any ethnic or social background and any level of intelligence.

No matter who you are, if you have dyslexia:

It can make you feel unintelligent

It can make you feel anxious

It can make you sad

It can make you feel miserable

It can make you depressed

It can take years to diagnose, and some people never have that luxury.

You don’t need anyone to point out your bad spelling, you are perfectly aware that you spelt that word wrong in your tweet, or on Facebook, or on your blog.

Berating people for their spelling can actually do more harm than good

When writing for business, you should ensure that your writing is proofread, no matter who you are or what your spelling capabilities. Don’t just rely on Word’s spell-check… in this bit of writing it keeps telling me that that last “your” is wrong and I should be writing “you’re”!

If you spot a spelling mistake, yes, politely tell someone if you feel the desperate need, but on social media, take a deep breathe and just ignore it.

Behind the computer screen, that tweeter may be having a bad day, they may be feeling insecure, or hounded, or suidical.

Is spelling really that important?