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I've noticed the same phenomenon since I started spending way too much time on the internet, and I think there may be a couple of factors at work.
One is the IM, text message, chatroom lingo thing. ROFL, LMAO, LOL, LMFAO. By the way, I never saw so many people doing so much fake laughing in my life. STFU.
The other is that now that so many people are using the written word to communicate openly where we can all see it, we get to see just how degraded and misused the language is. I don't necessarily think that's entirely new, but in the past people were just scribbling illiterately in the privacy of their own homes (if at all). Now it's out in the open for all of us to see and marvel at.
This is one topic that tends to make me irate and sarcastic - I guess it's one of my biggest pet peeves. I don't know what can be done to save the language but there is one potential positive to the whole internet forum phenomenon: perhaps by using the written word to communicate more, those whose language skills fall short will be influenced to do something about it. After all, if I hadn't been such a reader when I was growing up I wouldn't know how to spell. The thing that concerns and irritates me is the number of people who just don't care that they can't spell or write, and when someone says something about it they just cop an attitude. "Ya i kno i cant spel so wut??!! LMAO!!11!1"
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