Despite most people’s claims that technology is advancing society, I’ve recently realized that at times it is doing just the opposite.

While technology—like cell phones and computers—is very beneficial to society, they have negative effect as well. Autocorrect and spell check are two inventions that I and many other students constantly rely on.

Although all of these tools are very helpful in the moment, they seem to hurt us when it comes down to pencil and paper.

I constantly find myself making really simple spelling errors on handwritten assignments. Recently, I was reading an English essay I had written in class, and noticed that I was spelling simple words like “definitely,” “success,” and “disappoint” wrong.

Without my phone automatically replacing the misspelled word for me, my computer showing me a little red squiggly line underneath it, or having the ability to search up the word I was unsure how to spell, I didn’t notice my mistakes.

Now, I am not saying that all students make spelling mistakes like I do, or that we should get rid of these useful inventions. However, I do believe that we need to limit our reliance on technology to spell words for us.

Although I support the shift to a more technology based learning system (ie. Chromebooks), that doesn’t mean that I agree with technology’s capabilities that hinder our basic skills, like spelling.

AP tests, SATs, and other standardized testing are still on paper, and the evaluators are not sympathetic to simple spelling errors. Tests like these contribute to the multitude of reasons of why we need to limit our reliance on technology for spelling and grammar, as it is not always going to be readily available.