Station Life opinion: TBH, this is probably NBD but LMK what you think ... UGTBK!

Recently two of my children were having a dig at each other about being able to read each other’s text messages.

Basically, it was a case of “I know what I’m writing, it’s your problem to work out what was said!” I did remind them I spent many hours trying to teach them to spell correctly so it would be good if they put that to use.

Correct spelling is one of the reasons why I won’t ever be fast at texting. I just cannot bring myself to leave words spelt incorrectly — I have to correct them. Auto correct isn’t always a big help, either. Sometimes the words have no correlation to the word I want to type.

I once sent my son a message on our way to Perth. We had a joke with him that was along the lines of moving fast meant we were going “full soot”. I’m not going to tell you what autocorrect changed it to, but I missed it and my son replied, “You may want to look at what that message actually said!” Let’s say I checked my messages very carefully for a while after that.

I’m beginning to wonder if the future will see a whole new world of spelling when correctness won’t be an issue because it will be replaced by the need for speed, thus creating a whole new world of abbreviated words.

Having a passion for correct grammar and punctuation might be great for my role as a volunteer editor (mind you commas still do my head in), but it’s a pain when you are just wanting to read something for information or pleasure because every spelling error or obvious grammar mistakes immediately sets my teeth on edge.

I truly believe spelling and grammar come more naturally to some than others, but there are times when there is really no excuse.

The number of times I have seen Port Hedland on TV or in newspapers spelt as “Port Headland” had me checking if my spelling was, in fact, correct. It is.

I’m beginning to wonder if the future will see a whole new world of spelling when correctness won’t be an issue because it will be replaced by the need for speed, thus creating a whole new world of abbreviated words.

One of the first examples I recall was the store that opened many years ago — Toys4US when a word was replaced by a number. Now it’s just one example of many like it.

TBH, this is probably NBD but LMK what you think.

(To be honest, this is probably no big deal but let me know what you think.)

Raelene Hall is a writer who lives at Ned’s Creek, a cattle station in the Eastern Gascoyne