Divide by Null - undefined

My personal opinion on whether one should or should not use proper grammar...

If the input method is difficult (on-screen keyboard, cell phone sans qwerty), then relaxed grammar is ok.

If speed is very important (online games, instant messaging), then again, one need not be so strict.

In both methods, however, I choose to still add my apostrophes, write out "you" and "are", etc. The only thing I really change is that I don't normally end my phrases with punctuation, nor do I capitalize the first letter.

In a forum, one has the time to formulate a response. Likewise for e-mail. In these cases, much more often than not, one has access to a qwerty (or dvorak, if you're into that kind of thing o_O) keyboard. Thus, you don't have to fiddle with 2668862233777723. If you are a slow typist... well if you don't abbreviate, you can type more, and thus become better quicklier (and with better typing habits).

Now, of course, there are the people who would still misspell words or forget their commas and such on paper too. This isn't necessarily a case of laziness and most likely not a case of lazy typing. This should be a problem of one's English teacher (not to say that the person should take no blame).

People will, like it or not, judge others based upon grammar and spelling. On college applications, job applications, etc., a lack of correct grammar could ruin one's chances of acceptance. Proper grammar makes one seem more intelligent and thus more credible, regardless of how intelligent or credible one really is. This may not be a job application, mere informal chatter; however, there is also a factor of politeness. Poor grammar can severly reduce readability. Equal exchange - faster to type, but slower to read.

Personally, it's habit. For example, I have to struggle to not capitalize my I's. I doubt that I would gain much time by abbreviating already short words (u no wat i mean?).

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I was going to write a rant on some words, but I ended up writing this for a forum, and thought it would fit nicely here. This will probably become my rant space. They're fun to write, except that I want to digress and I have to force myself not to. I think I bordered on digression there, and I definitely did on this sentence.