"F in Grammar? Maybe It's Your Phone's Fault"

This was an article featured in Upfront Magazine that I thought was very important to share. More and more students and young people are struggling with grammar, or just getting too lazy to proofread.

Gena Babineaux, a woman working at the YMCA of Greater Houston, had more than 2,000 job applications for office manager and among them, "Babineaux encountered mountains of misspellings, missing punctuation, spacing mistakes, and abbreviations that are fine in text messages but not in formal writing." She automatically pushes away any application with huge errors. She is just one of the many people who have become annoyed by young people's laziness and increase of writing mistakes. According to Karra Shimabkuro, a high school English teacher, "'IM-ing language. . . has become part of what [students] think is the standard vocabulary.'" The huge field of mistakes seems to be occuring with college applications. These mistakes can cost a student a chance at the school they desire, changing their entire future just because of social media or texting. At the same time, some people say that social media's influence is just the English language evolving.

So what do I think? Is the increasing amount of grammar mistakes just "English evolving"?

If it is, then it's not evolving in the right direction. Whenever I read sentences online with clear, huge mistakes, I begin to wonder if the person who typed it even cared. If they were to take a minute to just go back and re-read once, they would have seen it and fixed it. Honestly, everybody makes mistakes when they write or type, but the number of mistakes is just too much. I agree with Gena Babineaux and the college admissions offices, who believe that errors in applications, whether a job or college application, shows laziness. I do believe that it is caused by technology, including texting, Twitter, Facebook, or even just emailing. Now, I'm not saying that technology is awful. I have family that lives in other states or countries that I can Facebook message and wish a "Happy Birthday" to, to keep in touch and show them I care. I text, but I don't over do it with abbreviations. I always have my phone with me. I can still text with old friends that go to different schools. Technology is great! But the effects that it has on some people are not. Writing is important and you wouldn't want to miss a college or job opportunity that you could've had, had you proofread.