Have you seen that Capitol One commercial, the one with Alec as a sub... I love the line he makes when he they tell him the subject they're working on is Spelling and he says, "That's not a subject, right, Spellcheck that's a program." Makes me laugh every single time, because it really has become a mindset for some. I don't know that my kids know how to use a dictionary--okay, sure that probably *know* how to use one, but they just don't.

Me, I have seven just sitting on my desk. Two on my Kindle, one or two on my phone... I have tons of dictionaries. But you know what, with all the word programs, they have the auto corrects and the apps that will find the correct word that we don't *have* to know how to spell any more. If you get it in the ballpark, then the program can either infer what word you're looking for or it will give you several options for what you might be trying to write.

It does speed up time from having to schlep out that ten pound book to wade through it, but I can't help but wonder if it dumbs us down just a little bit. Okay, I will grant, I suck at math so if there's an app (or calculator) that can do the work for me I will reach for that before I grab scratch paper and pen and (try to) work it out myself.

Back to spelling... I am just as guilty of not always trying trying to figure out how to spell things, but I do try harder than when I first started writing on a computer. I figure that if I just click the "correct" button, I will spell it incorrectly every time. But if I try and work it out, get it right, I will be less likely to spell it incorrectly again. Seems simple.

Do you think all these apps and online conveniences make us dumber or just streamline the process so we get more done which is a trade off for what we don't know any more? (now grammar, that’s a whole ‘nother thing!!!)