There is an initialism (technically, it is not an acronym) I use as texting shorthand and a hashtag for when I am gobsmacked by the autocorrect function on my smartphone: IHAC. I hate autocorrect.
Yes, it is supercharged to state that I hate a system for guessing words as I type. But I think it's suitable, as at times the "common" words it suggests are, well, not common at all.
I do like being able to teach autocorrect words. But that is apparently a limited trick. For my name, after I've successfully maneuvered past misspelling my own first name as John rather than Jon, my Android phone still suggests, of all the Jon people in the world, the last name Gosselin. The reality TV guy with far too many kids and an ex-wife. First, though, it suggests Stewart, as in the comic (no, his first name is not spelled with an "h").
My own name is only a mild example of my bittersweet partnership with autocorrect. As someone who believes he is a writer (I have had enough practice), catching autocorrect errors after I've sent an email, or a text message, gets on my nerves.
For the longest time, while writing an email or online post of some sort, each time I attempted to write "people" my phone suggested the word "puerile."* Now, I may use the screen keyboard a tad differently than most because I mostly use my left hand, but I don't see how the word "people" can be overlooked by autocorrect while the comparably more obscure term "puerile" could show up, so regularly. (I am usually using a swipe-to-type function, rather than pecking at keys. The two words have similar sweep paths, but there's still the question of commonality.) For that, in some moments of brisk writing, proclaiming IHAC fits.
If the autocorrect function gets on people's nerves, why don't they just get to a real keyboard and write? Why don't I just use my laptop when it is nearby instead? It's heavier than my phone.
It's a tradeoff: autocorrect gaffes for some types of physical convenience and comfort. Or laziness.
With my own contentious history with autocorrect while using that teeny screen keyboard on my Android phone, I read this piece from WIRED.COM with interest and amusement. It's about the Microsoft Word correction system, however. But the humor and challenge of autocorrect as a software is about the same.
The History of Autocorrect
"On one hand, Word didn't want to seem priggish; on the other, it couldn't very well go around recommending the correct spelling of mothrefukcer."
"On one hand, Word didn't want to seem priggish; on the other, it couldn't very well go around recommending the correct spelling of mothrefukcer."
Read the article :
http://www.wired.com/2014/07/history-of-autocorrect/
http://www.wired.com/2014/07/history-of-autocorrect/
*puerile means "of childhood" but it also means "childish or silly"
- Jon O
