[tart-lemonade]

I've heard this argument about spell checkers in Word, browsers, etc as well.

Anecdotally, I wouldn't be surprised if there was some truth to it: in the early 2010s I saw tons of people saying "defiantly" that meant to type "definitely", and I couldn't figure out why. Then I misspelled "definitely" once and saw the spell checker suggested "defiantly", and it finally clicked.

Spell checkers have definitely improved since then (I can't remember the last time I saw the definitely/defiantly mix-up), but I can't help but wonder how bad suggestions have affected the way people understand languages.

A similar phenomenon exists on TikTok with words taking on contradictory or even opposite meanings, though this doesn't seem to be caused by spell check so much as constant incorrect usage rewriting the definition in people's minds (like "POV: you're getting mugged" when it should actually be "POV: you're mugging someone" or "POV: you're a bystander watching someone get mugged").

[insane_dreamer]

There is truth to it. My 12 year old is a horrible speller (like 3rd grade level) and doesn't care because he says he can "just use grammerly".

There is a dumbing down effect, for sure.