Correct spelling and grammar are no longer viewed as essential communication rules, especially on social media. For instance, “whose” and “who’s” have become interchangeable in the same way as “you’re” and “your”. In Malagasy, a verb in the future tense should begin with the letter “h”, but social media users nowadays tend to completely ignore those basic principles. The same applies to words like enw instead of the academically correct ianao, as well as cc instead of “manahoana” or “manao ahoana”, etc.
The current mainstream mindset is that any spelling can do as long as the reader can guess what’s being inferred. However, this has a seriously negative effect on learning. We often encounter those mistakes so many times that in the long run, our minds eventually tend to perceive them as correct or at least acceptable, and we end up reproducing them during moments of inattention.
On the other hand, individuals who try to correct other people’s misspellings and grammatical mistakes are often bashed and pejoratively labeled as the “grammar police” [ref.] . With all of this combined, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a decline in young students’ academic performance and success rates in national exams.
Video: grammar police-related humor
