Turn Off Autocorrect, Coward
When was the last time auto-correction made your life easier? Go back to your memory and try to conjure up the moment when the auto-correction actually worked. I know we only notice technology when it’s not working, but if you can’t come up with one, it’s time to admit that auto – correction is bad .
To be clear, by “autocorrect” I mean software that automatically replaces what you printed with what it thinks you really wanted to print. I have no problem with predictive text input and spell checker, which are very useful for people with dyslexia and dysgraphia or for those who send important emails from their phone. Many accessibility features, such as text input and custom keyboard shortcuts, would not exist without text prediction algorithms. The problem isn’t the auto-correction technology, but the performance sucks.
I’ve had auto-correction turned off for many years now, and there are two important reasons why I will never return. First, without this it is easier to convey my point of view. Multiple transposed letters make it difficult to parse a message, but one auto-replaceable word can completely change its meaning, especially when your phone continually inserts that word into subsequent messages. Secondly, I love the things I write to make them sound like I wrote them. We all have a unique way of expressing ourselves in words; autocorrect is so obsessed with correcting us that it makes all of our messages read the same. I sound very different in professional emails than in group chat with football shit, and my phone keeps it the same without auto-correction.
If you start to wonder, turning off auto-correction is easy. IOs users can access keyboard settings from the keyboard itself; Android keyboards have a gear icon in the upper right corner that brings up a menu with Smart Input and Restore Defaults options. The former contains menus for predictive text input, spell checker, auto-replace, and custom keyboard shortcuts, while the latter allows you to clear cached dictionary data. (Apple, for reasons that I’m sure are legitimate, hides the Reset Dictionary function in the General Settings menu, not in other keyboard settings.) Play around with the settings and see what you like.
Of course, this tip isn’t for everyone. Maybe you are one of dozens of people who believe that autocorrect predicts every keystroke flawlessly. For the rest of us, however, disabling Auto Correction is like taking the Learning Wheels off the bike – if this idea makes you uncomfortable, then even more excuse to end it.