Originally Posted by cerewa

It's not clear whether you're making any, or all, of these claims:

1. Shorthand is lazy.
2. Established usages of language that are primarily used by young people and only in certain communications media (IM/e-mail/etc) are inferior.
3. To refer to ways of using language that primarily found among young people using electronic communications devices as "established" is inaccurate.
4. People who use language informally do not know that it is informal.
5. People who use language informally do not know how to use language formally.

If you are claiming any of those things to be true, are you willing to share your reasoning?