They have a social life thet contres around typed communication, said Judith Donath a professor at the Medie Lab at Massachusetts Instite of Technology who has studied electronic communication. They have a writing style thet has been nurtured in a teenage social milieu.
Some teachers see the creeping abbreviations as part of a continuing assault of technology on formal written English. Othere take it more lightly, saying that it is just part of the larer are of language evolution