Internet speak...going on twenty years now, not a new trend! I think we can thank...creative...people for that in the early AOL and Yahoo chatrooms, but if you look back at the 70s and 80s and to a lesser extent in the 90s I think, people have been "funning" with words for a very long time. Essentially slang and colloquialism...doesn't change English no matter how popular it is. I'm fine with all that but some of the text-speak that developed with early SMS and multiple button presses bugs me...even know with predictive text and suggestions people still use it. K. Thx. All the rest. Like it's so hard to tap/type "ok" or "thanks."
Because we speak a language that has a certain “name” will not lead to the same understanding by all people who speak that language. For instance, German is spoken in at least some regions in:
Germany
Austria
Liechtenstein
Luxenburg
Italy
Denmark
Belgium
Swiss
Namibia
Paraguay
That does not mean all these people can have fluent conversations amongst them.
Luxemburg approached Hitler about an “Anschluss” with the Third Reich.
But they wanted to keep their version of German (Lëtzebuergesch). Hitler refused!
Heck, there are regions in the UK who do not fully understand each other 
Even “The King’s English” is different between those regions
In tiny NL it is the same. I’ve worked in a rural region with people who could tell with a margin of 5 mile where the person they just met was born.
Once there was a brave attempt to create a “world language” Esperanto, that failed.
“No, I am not an English major.
There seems to be a trend forming……”
Maybe fooking with yer Heavy Duty Batt mind butt watt doo I know?
I just hope he ain’t pointin’ fingers @ moi.
Anyhoo like in Wall Street parlance, this trend is yer friend. Don’t fight the trend my friend cuz it’ll drive y’all krazy. (Another country western song title fer yer slim pickens.) 
Ah…yeah I wouldn’t take that seriously, there’s a couple hundred languages I’d guess and getting all Europeans to agree on 1 language is…not going to happen. But if it did happen I pray it wouldn’t be Chinese.
I’m still waiting for the most creative BLF member to appear to add some commentary.
Yup, but it doesn’t mean we need to have a common language among us
English and French are still “common langauges” that some (not all) people know in the different countries and which allow understanding each other. Even if there is no common langauge, understandings (simple ones, eventually) can be reached.
I guess we all know who he is 
Language never changes, that’s why Shakespeare is so easy to read even today!
My take - I’ve met plenty of people my age and younger that speak and write more precisely/eloquently than a lot of middle-aged or senior Americans. Just cruise through the comments section on any news article, Facebook post, etc.
Lightbringer?
(I mean, who else could it be?)
“Lightbringer?”……
Ya him, deafinuttsely. He gets away with a lotta sheeit. 
But since when has a new generation ever listened to the old folks—and why should they?
Old folks and governments keep doing the same thing over and over and getting the same results, all the while expecting something to be… different?
Younger folks want to see changes and improvements, and they will resist and rebel against the status quo in everything that they can control—music, dress, language, etc.
For example, look at the mess of 20 to 70 year long endless wars and conflicts that the US continues— can’t even figure out how to get along with the nearest little island country of Cuba. Why must this continue and why can’t it be solved? Because old folks are in control and want it that way.
Sorry for the rant; well no, not sorry.
Ifyouaskmeireallydontknowhatallthefussisabout
Or put another way
IYAMIRDKWATFIA
Esperanto was an attempt at a universal language, created in what is now Poland by a man who hoped that a common language would help to unify the world and bring peace.
If you go to the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay, here in the eastern USA, you can find people who speak dialects of English that came to the New World from the Old, but have long since died out in Great Britain. I bought a duck decoy from such a person, who pronounced the word “house” as “heeous.”
I don’t think it’s true that people in the American colonies in the 1700’s did not speak with idioms and contractions - they most certainly did, as any reading of the documents we have from that period show. In particular, looking at correspondence from the 1700’s shows that idiomatic language, contractions, etc., were in common use then.
Adding voice typing. That didn’t come out right. Sometimes I go back and correct. Sometimes I don’t. Could be a punxsutawneytion problem. Sometimes it misses words when I only pronounced one of two syllables. I like to drop syllables when I can. I blame Google. PS I could have used the present tense pronounce rather than the past tense pronounced. I probably should have. I definitely should’ve. I’m not going back to correct it.
Unfortunately in some cases linguistics experts are driving the changes. One example is the switch in the media from ‘pled’ to ‘pleaded’. There seems to be a push to ‘simplify’ english. I dread the changes in the coming decades when ‘swam’ is replaced by ‘swimmed’, ‘flew’ replaced by ‘flyed’, ‘wrote’ replaced by ‘writed’, ‘fell’ replaced be ‘falled’, ‘went’ replaced by ‘goed’, ‘found’ replaced by ‘finded’, etc.
I’m always bothered by “orientated” used where “oriented” ought to be.
However, correcting things like spelling and grammar can often be a class thing. Just because someone grew up with a different quality of education doesn’t mean you should sit there and tell them they speak incorrectly.
Given that this website is conversational, and not some sort of formal writing, I don’t think we should be too bothered. Just for fun, there’s also a few notable users who deliberately, shall we say, play with their spelling and wording to impart a certain impression. At least one of them has yet to bring his light to this thread.
tldr if this is the most pressing complaint you’ve got at the moment, I’m very happy for you, you must have a good life without stress
High expectations now. Tension is building.
We’re special.
As you say, we’re not writing term-papers here. There’s a time and a place…
You’re not going to get dressed up in a tux to go to the beach, nor would you go in sawed-off shorts and ratty teeshirt to someone’s wedding. Well, unless it’s a wedding on a beach, maybe, who knows…
If you’re writing a dissertation or reference post, sure, go more “formal”. But if yakking with a bunch of screwballs who are obsessed with glow-sticks, why the need for The Queen’s English, or even Queen’s English (bismillah!)?
I much prefer “should’ve” or even “shouldda” to “should of” (or “could of” or “might of”, for that matter :confounded: ).
Point being, there’s a level of familiarity involved. You dress better and speak more formally going to meet a client than hanging out with your drinking buddies.
Same thing online.