When correct spelling hardly matters: Teenagers’ production and perception of spelling error corrections in Dutch social media writing

Abstract The present paper examines teenagers’ production and perception of spelling error corrections (e.g., *zij for zei) in online messaging. It discusses both a quantitative and qualitative analysis of spelling corrections in a large corpus of private online conversations between Flemish adolescents and the results of an online survey with a similar target group. Our study reveals that teenagers hardly correct their own spelling errors and those of their peers in informal social media writing. Several factors play a role in whether or not they rectify an error, such as the type of error and their socio-demographic profile. In general, adolescents tend to have a negative attitude towards correcting other people’s spelling mistakes. Consequently, teenagers often perform this face-threatening act (FTA) to tease or irritate their interlocutor or by way of payback for another FTA. Strikingly, even in non-conflictual contexts, errors are generally pointed out quite bluntly, though in some cases, both the error-maker and the interlocutor engage in damage control when the error has been acknowledged by the former. By conducting this research, we can achieve a better understanding of the sociopragmatic mechanisms underlying error perception and error handling in a social media context that generally embraces nonstandard writing.