Grammar 101

One of my biggest pet peeves is bad grammar. Well, bad grammar along with bad spelling. I might not be one to talk, considering my issue with commas (oh, the hours I've spent removing them and putting them back in, only to remove them yet again...and then agonize over whether I really should've removed it), but at least I can form a sentence. And I know the differences between there, their & they're and your & you're.

A co-worker was questioning why "kids these days" (heh) are adding extra consonants to words, like texxt, workkk, yayyyy, etc. This is the sort of crap that makes me INSANE. Why is it cool to look like you don't know how to spell? The nerd in me clearly doesn't get it either. Of course, we grew up in a world before email & cell phones & texting. There were no shortcuts to writing (ex. LOL, BTW, BRB, etc), so maybe this weird fad of misspelling on purpose stems from that?

People's grammar is deplorable, too. I'm talking grown adults here. I never realized how many people on this earth don't have the ability to form a grammatically correct sentence. Read any of the comments on Facebook for like, Fox 8 News or your favorite bands' status updates. 99% of the comments either have misspelled words, are complete run-on sentences, or just in general make no sense. Here's an example from a Fox 8 News update regarding MTV's new show "Skins"(which I have not seen nor do I have any inclination to watch, by the way):

"Mtv is kepn it real! This s wat happing now adays, just hard for all yall parents to accept it b/c yall dont want to belive yall kids are doinng it. So dont blame the show"

And that's not even really a bad one.

Another example- I'm also a fan of The Vampire Diaries on Facebook (duh). Whenever they post an update all the teens go bananas, which is fine. I have to admit I get excited for sneak peeks to new episodes or new pictures from the upcoming show, etc. I'm just a dork like that. The comments on these updates though...oh man. These kids don't even know how to spell the character's freaking names! Damon becomes Damien, Damin, Damen; Stefan is Steven, Stephan, Steffan (maybe they're just using the extra letters to be cool in this case?). It is simply amazing.

And now, I will get off my high horse and try to figure out if another comma is needed in this sentence.