are people really that lazy?

People really are that lazy. Why bother spending two minutes typing things out properly when you can abbreviate the same message in thirty seconds?

Most people don't believe reading or self-education are good sources of entertainment. The people who don't pay attention to spelling and grammar in school find it easier to type things phonetically. Others who have knowledge of spelling just don't bother with capitalization, grammar, punctuation, and spelling because it "takes too much time" or it's "not cool" because none of their other illiterate friends do it.

I'm not justifying it, but I can understand why "words" like "dis," "dat," and "chillen" are clogging up our society. It bugs the hell out of me too, but as technology continues to advance, laziness with persist, and language will gradually crumble. The best you can do, or what I already do, is correct people when they're wrong, even if it bugs them. I would rather be hated for saving the English language than ridiculed for sounding like an illiterate moron.

Haven't you noticed the hundreds and thousands of homework questions passed off on this site? People, especially young ones these days, consider laziness as a normal, natural and acceptable condition. You want instant paradise? Push a button!

Are people really that lazy? Yes, of course. :)

In their defense, saving characters is a big help for people who aren't adept typists (or who are using numeric pads), and by the time they become adept, the abbreviations have become a habit.