The Problm w/shorthand?

      Text-speak and e-mail slang is spreading like wild fire from middle school age to college kids and beyond.  The more adept an individual becomes with technology, the more likely they are to use it.  Thus, it becomes only a matter of time before someone adapts their speech within that technology.
     Many critics of instant messaging and text messaging critique the grammar that it implies.  Within texting there is an abundance of words such as g2g (got to go), lol, rofl, and such words.  When humans use keyboards to interact socially, its only a matter of time until language modifies itself.  Methods of shortening words involves removing letters and misspelling things.  This may create a problem if the receiver loses the meaning of the word.  However, if the receiver understands this method of communication it is not necessarily a bad thing.  I feel the only reason that this short hand method of writing is a bad thing is if it carries over to a professional setting.  If this shorthand carries over to a professional life, then obviously it is a problem.  As far as peer to peer style communication, shorthand is not a bad habit as long as it is reciprocated among users.
    I occasionally use shortened text when im texting on a cell phone.  I rarely use it online with a keyboard but that is because I am much quicker at typing on a keyboard than I am with a phone.  With phone texting I'm quite slow at, therefore sometimes I will shorten words.
    Technological communication is under the scrutiny of many skeptics and people who just flat out don't like what they don't understand.  I could see how an outsider to the technology would be skeptical of a generation not knowing how to spell "because" but as a member of the generation, there is nothing to fear.  Shorthand typing, like technology, is like anything in life in regards to a time and a place.  I would challenge a critic of shorthand and ask them whether or not they talk to their boss the same way as their best friend?
     All in all, there is nothing wrong with shorthanded text via CMC or any type of technological advance in communication as long as individuals don't bring their bad grammar to a professional setting.