j2luk (Just to Let You Know)

Ok, I know I'm no expert in literary composition but I am so incredibly annoyed by the whole SMS/chat lingo/'text-speak' (txtspk, as it were) world out there.

I understand if you're texting, it's much easier to type "ttyl" rather than the big long closing sentence of "talk to you later". Actually, "ttyl" is one of the few abbreviations I do know in the chat world and use often. Otherwise, I am nearly completely out of the loop because I hardly ever text at all. I agree this chat lingo does have a place in our world today. To deny that would be to admit I'm getting old and the times are passing me by (and, much to my chagrin, they already do that sometimes anyways!) I'm not upset because of my ignorance, truly I'm not!

Here's my pet peeve:
Is it entirely necessary when not texting to continue using txtspk in all forms of communication?

Facebook is where I've noticed this a lot. There are people sending messages back and forth and I'm finding myself extremely concerned for their language skills. Are teenagers using txtspk on purpose so their parents don't have a clue what they're saying? Is it like "pig latin" (which I never got either)? It's just that I'm seeing some of these messages and it appears that some of these people haven't any idea there's a written language out there called English where spelling and grammatical correctness are of significant importance.

Is the written word I love so much being replaced? Are teachers out there having a hard time because their students are turning in essays composed of "lol"'s and "btw"'s? I'm picturing a novel being published 15 years down the road with half the page length because the editor was born in the 2000's and didn't see the point in printing "why" instead of "y" or "if I recall correctly" instead of "iirc". If that ever happens, I am so doomed! lol :)

So, does this officially make me an old-fogie/30-something loser mom-type who's completely out of touch with today's generation? Probably...
Anyways, I figured I may as well try to educate myself in the process of my exasperation and found this link to help me along a little. I guess if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Or, at least do some educated pretending to help you along a little.

(my apologies to those of you who truly do have remarkable spelling and grammatical skills...you're probably thinking I have no room to talk with my own errors)