Auto Correct… by JoAnn

Perhaps you know who invented it. Perhaps you enjoy using it every time you text. Or maybe, just maybe, you feel like me and hate auto-correct!

The concept of my cell phone automatically correcting a word that I have misspelled in a text is brilliant. Who wouldn’t want that? I certainly would appreciate the help. I think anyone would. But my problem is that it’s never that simple for me. Am I the only one who gets frustrated with auto-correct?

Having the correct spelling of a word show up for me to choose is terrific. What I don’t like is when a word, or even part of a sentence, is completely changed without my choosing. This means that if I am texting in a hurry and don’t notice the change, it will be sent to whomever I am texting. When this happens, I get highly frustrated.

I am a stickler for proper spelling. It goes back to my days of taking business courses in school, explicitly typing. Yes, the old-fashioned typing where you used the machine called a typewriter and a clean sheet of paper. When a mistake was made, a liquid similar to white paint was brushed over the error so it could be typed over. I always hated how messy the correction looked, so I strove to have the correct spelling. With today’s technology, the auto-correct I did not choose is that messy-looking white paint!

Even now, I want my text or email to look as pristine as my typed letters once looked. Perfect. Auto-correct, with its well-meaning concept, frustrates me more than it helps. It’s like a fly buzzing around my cell phone; only it’s inside my phone where I can’t swat it. Please share if there is a way to remove it from my phone.

The cell phone is undoubtedly my favorite of all my gizmos and gadgets. I would feel lost without it. I think that’s why I get so mad when it doesn’t react the way I think it should. It’s a tiny computer that pretty much does everything. But when it makes a mistake, I can become very unforgiving. Just thinking about it gives me a headache.

We are spoiled, or at least I am. I expect a gadget to perform perfectly 100% of the time. Is that possible of anything? Realistically no, of course not. So why does something that should be a minor problem bug me so much? Too bad my auto-correct can’t correct me.

I guess I will continue blaming my fat fingertip on my texting mishaps and let auto-correct have a break. Maybe I can slow down and use a skinnier finger to type. I enjoy texting too much to cut that out of my routine. So I will continue on, hoping to win the next round with that fly.