Typos: the new status symbol?

Ferrari. Prada. Rolex…..Typo?!

A recent Wall St Journal article claimed typos are the new status symbol for the rich elite.

They’re apparently too darn important to worry about the trivialities of spelling.

From Trump’s ‘cofefe’ to Jack Dorsey’s all lower case memo, it seems only us little people have to worry about missing letters and apostrophes.

But there’s another emerging trend with typos: we’re now using them on purpose as a shortcut for ‘human made, not AI generated’.

Job applicants are adding them to CVs and cover letters.

Celebs are sprinkling them across their Instagram stories to sound more ‘authentic’.

And studies show we no longer judge potential dates negatively if there’s a typo on their Tinder profile.

These days typos might signal you care, because you actually bothered to write something yourself.

So am I, gasp, recommending you follow suit?  

Cann you finaly through out the rool book and say ‘Get stufft’ to the grammer polis?

Absolutely not. Most of us will still be judged negatively if we make mistakes. And there are better ways to show there’s a real human behind your work.

You can:

• Reference something only you would know – a conversation with your client or colleague, a personal detail, a case study or story

• Use more colourful words that AI doesn’t – not swear words, but words that are distinctly ‘you’. I made a client laugh recently with my use of ‘finger-pointy’. I’m also partial to a ‘humongous’ and a ‘blimey’.

• Tailor your communication to your audience – even if it’s just a bespoke first paragraph and a sprinkle of adaptations throughout, it stops it feeling generic.

People want written communications with a unique voice. Give them yours in spades.

And tell me, do you make typos on purpose? I’d love to know!