The misspellings I don't understand since there is a "check spelling" button to help you before you send your query. But the grammar, are they not teaching this type of thing in schools anymore, or has our email and texting culture cultivated this sloppiness in our writing? Maybe I just answered my own question, but I am genuinely curious as to why more people don't seem to care what they sound like out there. I know this seems like a really snooty question, especially over such informal communication, but any feedback would be great.

Your question is not snooty. The sad thing is, the poor grammar is likely mostly from native English speakers.

Get over it.

Shouldn't it be "multitudes"?

One thing that one tends to see as no body out there can see the writer, secondly one might just be so lazy and opt to believe that readers can understand no matter what. But as long as you are still interested in what the writer trying to say you would not mind at all, would you? As long as it is not a resume and they are not doing this for a living

Part of me wanted to just answer "well - duh!"

I think you touch on some good points. However people here come from many different places and many different points in their lives. Older people (sad to say like me) still think and write in sentences and I almost always use the spell checker.

Younger people do not see this forum as formal writing so they are more willing to use IM slang and and to not care if words are misspelled.

And sometime I too use the IM slang. It is easier and some times fun :)

But I do choose not to answer questions that are so poorly written that they are nearly unintelligible. They can choose to write like and I can choose not to read it.

Just my two cents :)

Just keep in mind that the comfort level and familiarity one feels in this type of forum may promote this lackadaisical attitude with grammar. Just think of how many people are improving their typing skills.

Using writing to communicate in real time, the way we do on computers and texting devices, is something that traditional education has never dealt with. And spending time on the the Internet is something kids do *instead* of improving their writing.

Yes, it's not only frustrating but it's also illiterate. My opinion, it's laziness and the need to fit in (even TV advertisements glamorize it) wrapped up in one. It will come back to bite them in the ass further down the road. Professional businesses will never take them seriously and intelligent peers will see them as uneducated... as many YA answers already see them.

I know, it bugs me too. I'm young (22) and I like to use proper spelling and grammar. I can't stand when people write in IM form on here! You did answer your own question though. It is the media out there that has caused this laziness.

It's atrocious. And it's not limited to spelling and grammar, but plain old word usage as well (e.g.: "could of" instead of "could have", or " it's a whole nother thing" instead of "another whole thing". The dumbing down of America has truly come to pass, and I'm afraid we've lost the battle against ignorance and idiocy. Look at our media icons. Fiddy? Britney? Ecchh.