Yes. I refuse to abbreviate things, unless I'm just a couple of characters over the limit in a text. I do happily use &, though.


Rarely while talking; always in my head.


Yes. A school friend wrote a comment on one of my status updates which was basically text speak. Missing out vowels, etc. I nearly cried.


No, but most of my friends are more educated than that.


Rarely. I suspect this is more of a problem for Americans because of the number of words that are homophones in your dialect and aren't in ours. Do/dew is a prime example.


Quite. But it's fun to be that once in awhile so I can't complain about them too much.


Frequently. It's actually very useful in my job to be considered such.


I think lack of grammar schooling has done that. I very much doubt that young people use text speak or 140 character limits in formal writing. That's where you see real evidence of the erosion of "proper" grammar. It's less of a worry in informal speech/writing.


Rarely. Again, I'll use symbols like & quite a lot. But I've got a decent enough vocabulary that I can find concise ways to write what I mean.


Yes, those Tom and Nate mentioned, and you're missing a full stop in your example of misspelled words. It should, of course, be inside the close bracket. (I think you Yanks call those "parentheses", which is another difference between our dialects.)