Career blogger Penelope Trunk recently had an interesting post outlining five reasons why typos on blogs are a fact of life and that complaining about them is “stupid.”
From spell checker dropping the ball to the age-old argument that spelling is not tied to intelligence, Penelope goes as far as warning about the dangers of perfectionism.
If errors bother you a lot, consider that you might be a perfectionist, which is a disorder. Perfectionists are more likely to be depressed than other people because no amount of work seems like enough. They are more likely to be unhappy with their work because delegating is nearly impossible if you are a perfectionist. And they are more likely to have social problems because people mired in details cannot look up and notice the nuances of what matters to other people.
It is my belief that the majority of bloggers would rather spend their time coming up with something interesting to write about rather than looking up the difference between a colon and a semi. Plus, since many bloggers have adopted English as a second language, you can’t expect things to be perfect. However, I do admit that I take notice of typos on several top blogs and scratch my head over their level of caution. While it doesn’t make me doubt the validity of what they are talking about, it does raise a red flag.
What’s your take on typos? A fact of life or an unacceptable practice?
