No matter who you are and what you sound like, you have most likely run into the situation of meeting someone who sounds different from you. Whether it be the letter they enunciate most in a word or the way they pronounce a word altogether, it’s okay to notice these differences. What’s not okay is to judge individuals based on these differences.

Throughout the United States, people speak differently. I’m from the East coast. Coming to school in the Midwest for college was interesting for me in terms of dialect and pronunciation. People always tend to “make fun” of the way New Yorkers speak (as seen below).

One of my good friends at Ohio State is named Hannah. She’s from Chicago. Saying her name–a quite simple task–has become a big controversy. I pronounce it H-AH-NA, which is the way I have heard it pronounced in my area of New York throughout my entire life. That being said, she pronounces it H-ANNE-NA–a more commonly accepted pronunciation in the Midwest.

Getting back to my little anecdote, I always feel so bad because it’s her name and I should pronounce it the way she thinks it is properly pronounced. But changing the way you pronounce simple letter pairings and words is a lot more difficult than one would think.

All over the country, people speak differently. There are southern accents, New York accents, Bostonian accents, etc. And of course, there are accents that can be recognized as coming from other areas and even other countries around the world. With these pronunciations also come some new vocabulary. For example, some people may say “that isn’t the right answer,” but some may say “that ain’t the right answer.”

It’s okay for there to be numerous ways to relay the same sort of message. But people tend to cross into dangerous territory when they make poor judgements based on accents and word choice.

Again, take the word “ain’t.” It isn’t commonly taught in schools, and in many districts throughout the U.S., teachers would actually look down upon a student that were to use it in a formal essay or assignment. It is unfair to place such a pressure on students to speak or write in a way that’s different from what they were taught in the “real world.” “Ain’t” is actually recognized by some of the largest, well-known dictionaries like the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster.

As explained in “The Right to be Literate: Literacy, Education, and the School-to-Prison Pipeline,” literacy should not be catered to certain groups with certain beliefs that live in certain areas. People speak differently and that should be accepted. The following quote from the article explains it perfectly:

“Literacy as a civil right really translates into “literacies” as a civil right, including children’s right to their own creative and cultural literate practice.”

Literacy varies and we must accept that variation. It’s impossible not to recognize differences in language. But it is necessary to prevent judgements of differentiation.

Technology has destroyed our generation’s ability to spell. With spell check, word processors, and search engines, there is no need to spend time learning how to spell when you can navigate to the correct spelling of a word in seconds.

As people begin to rely more heavily on these correctors, communication becomes faster. And in the mind’s of many, faster communication is more efficient communication.

The meme above displays the Gen Z mindset perfectly. Nowadays, everything is about how fast you can do it and how flawless it can be. Why think about grammar and spelling when a computer or a phone can do it for you?

As Jeff Grabill talks about in his piece titled “The Writing Lives of College Students,” word processors such as Microsoft Word are most valued compared to other common technologies. The data from the study can be seen in the graphic below.

This information was published over ten years ago. Since then, Gen Z members have only grown more and more attached to word processing systems, allowing for easy editing and more importantly, instant spell check.

And like with all generational behavior changes, one question still remains unanswered; does it matter that we can’t spell?

Some may argue that lacking spelling skills encourages laziness and hinders future learning experiences. But I think that overall, our generation’s reliance on tools like spell check doesn’t really matter.

Everyone has begun to incorporate automatic editing assistance and other technologies into all forms of communication. And this means that companies, families, and everything else have begun to communicate via the same technologies. These aids are encouraged in almost all settings. And with that being the case, an instance where spell check isn’t available is rare.

Our generation may not be able to spell every word in the dictionary, but we can send emails in seconds, count the the number of words in an essay with the click of a button, and easily check the grammar and spelling of everything we type.

And in a more abstract sense, think about any famous writer–famous songwriters like John Legend, famous authors like J.K. Rowling, famous speech writers, famous poets, famous journalists. These individuals no longer need to worry about the logistics of their writing. They have to focus more on the execution and the content itself. This allows for greater creativity and stronger, deeper meanings within different medias.

Our generation can’t spell. But I don’t think we are any worse off than others. We are a population of technological reliance, and so we must accept that and use it to our advantage.