You might expect me to answer that question with an emphatic yes, but I’m not going to do that today. I’m not going to say no either. Instead I’m going to argue that it’s the wrong question.
Some background first. The Huffington Post recently published the results of a YouGuv poll showing that most people aren’t bothered at all by grammar mistakes in texts. (According to the poll, there was slightly more concern about grammar mistakes in emails.)
I’m a stickler about the rules of English. Shouldn’t I be concerned? The answer is no, for several reasons.
First, texts and emails are closer to conversation than formal writing, so looser rules apply. I suspect that if you could do a brain scan of someone typing on a laptop or a smartphone, you’d see neurological activity that’s quite different from – say – writing a business report.
Here’s why I think that’s true: I’ve noticed the difference in my own behavior. I’m endlessly chagrined by the mistakes that slip past me when I send an email. Egad! Who wrote that? Gulp – I did.
I’ve noticed too that I don’t pick up mistakes in emails sent to me. Someone apologizes later for a garbled email, and I realize that I didn’t see any of the mistakes. Mind you, I’m a maniac who can spot a typo in a book or student essay from 10 feet away.
I have another gripe about the poll. (If you visit this blog often, you aleady know what I’m going to say.) What we’re talking about are usage – not grammar – mistakes. Grammar is the structure of a language. I rarely hear anyone make a mistake with word order, which is where you find the fundamental grammar of our language.
Problems with capital letters, apostrophes, and the like are usage problems, and (as I said a moment ago), the rules aren’t as strict for informal situations. In fact many usage rules (such as the aforementioned capital letters and apostrophes) don’t come into play at all when we’re talking. Perhaps our brains transition to talking mode when we’re texting, and that’s why we’re more casual about punctuation and spelling.
I’m not losing any sleep about it.
I just had the same experience you describe earlier today – someone apologizing for some typos in an email, typos I had not even noticed. Also, I wonder if what you say about brain activity would also hold true for when we proofread something we have written, because I find it very hard to spot my own mistakes, whereas I can smell a student’s misspelling of a word from miles away.
In all, I guess we can say there are very many ‘Englishes’, one for every situation, register (and medium).
Gustavo, I think your idea about proofreading is right on target. (The same thing happens to me!)