What makes this even worse, is that most people don’t learn their own language truly thoroughly in a school system. Spelling, grammar, clear exposition — the schools are not very good and communicating these lessons. Therefore, people pick up the nuances of their own language by reading. In the past, people learned English by reading the newspaper. Or magazines, or good books. Editors kept writers and readers on the straight and narrow.
Today, readers browse blogs on the web and find out that anything goes for spelling, grammar and exposition.
It’s all downhill from here. The blind leading the blind.
Even the best writers need proof-readers; and the best ones KNOW it.
To be honest I'm quite pleased with the quality of grammar to be found in forums now compared to the 90's and 00's. For a while there I feared it would trend further in the l33tspeak direction but thankfully common sense prevailed. People found they weren't taken seriously unless they wrote properly, and they get lots more practice writing nowadays which has vastly improved average spelling ability.