The annoyance that is "LOL"

Okay, I've just about had it.

Everyone, repeat after me: "Just because we're only writing an email, or chatting online, it DOES NOT mean we have to talk like a moron. It does not mean that grammatical rules and general common sense and conversational skill is redundant."

Granted when you are chatting in real time you might prefer to ignore such rules as capitalising the first letter of the sentence because you don't want whoever you're talking to to wait too long. But seriously, the state of the English language has forever been going downhill since the invention of internet. It's possibly the worse thing happened to the language after the American decided to reinvent spelling rules.

Okay, here are a few guidelines to not be a moron while online:

1. "LOL" does NOT equal to a fullstop. In fact it's not even a punctuation. Honestly I have never really heard a joke from an email that is so funny that it made me laugh out loud. Do this simple exercise with me: whenever you feel the urge to type "lol", listen VERY hard to see whether you are in fact laughing out loud. If not, don't type it. Personally I prefer people to type "Haha". Even better if it's in brackets.
   
2. Just because you're online does not mean you can reinvent English lanaguage. I got told off for shocking grammar in emails (Granted. Most of the time it's actually my mild dyslexia playing up. Unless I know what I'm looking at, sometimes I'll mix up words... anyway enough about myself), and yet you see people completely disregard the punctuation and grammar rules, and get away with it. Grrrr.
   
3. SPELLING. Really. Show they world you're literate by using the correct spelling. Anyone using abbreviation just to save typing time will have to explain to me how much they are paying per character they're typing. Because that would be the only reason why you want to type less characters.
   
4. Oh, and anyone who alternate capital letters and lowercase should be shot.
   

Frankly, for someone with English as a second language (okay, so it's almost my first...) to point this out is a disgrace to any native speaker. The faceless form of communication that the internet provides makes people think it's okay to be an illiterate moron. No, it's not okay. Everytime you type something, just remember it's still represent who you are. Sound the words out in your head. This is what others hear in their head. Occational typos in unavoidable, but do try your best not to sound like a moron. Please.