This is interesting to me.
I’m aware that a lot of people don’t know the difference between ‘to’ and ‘too’. But I noticed as long ago as the early ‘nineties, when I first got onto the Internet, that there’s an odd tendency to make errors in homonyms when typing/communicating by computer - errors that one would never make with pencil and paper.
All I can think is that there is a different neurological ‘thing’ going on, when we communicate this way, than when we write.
I also think that something similar happens with cell-phone usage while driving. Something very different is going on there, than when someone is simply talking to a passenger who is actually in the car. I’ve almost been killed several times, by people driving while cell-phoning - not even including near misses when people were texting.
-JT
Re; misused words; I get the strong impression that most public school systems since the 1990s have purposely de-emphasized the need for teaching proper english and basic grammar to the K through 12s. At the very least, there is far LESS TENDENCY TO CORRECT THE STUDENT. I don’t know why, maybe they think poor self esteem can be too easily explained by “racist teachers!”, so everybody tip-toes around the dropped consonants, dropped ‘G’s and all those dangling participles too.
Re; Texting while driving; I’m just waiting for some city ordinance that will mandate only selling cell phones that are made to stop working while inside of a moving vehicle. I think that is the only way to really stop texting while driving. Many adults are already worse than the teens!