There was a funny column in the Tribune today, but we all know I can't seem to link to their articles anymore so I'll copy part of it here. Mary Schmich classified texters this way:

1) The Stickler - You learned to punctuate in grade school. You were good at it, and you will never abandon the source of your glory, no matter how technology or the language changes.

You may have been an English major in college. If so, you take pride in the fact that, though you can barely hammer a nail straight, you can punctuate better than any engineer.

Periods definitely end a thought...I prefer ellipses to make sure the conversation continues because it is more like a casual conversation.

If you inadvertently omit a period in a text — which you do because your eyes aren't what they used to be and those keys are criminally small — you will spend two minutes trying to correct the error.

How much of a stickler are you? Your texts even contain semicolons.

You are over 40

2) The Slacker - Periods, meh, whatever.

who needs caps

who needs question marks

iF your finGers slip and you Type CAPS where they're not needed who cares

You believe that texts are closer to conversation than to writing, ergo the regular writing rules do not apply.

You never use the word "ergo," except, perhaps, ironically.

You have never used a semicolon in anything, much less a text. You may not be sure what one is, unless you read The New Yorker. If you are sure, you're equally sure that semicolons should be put in the language garbage bin along with "thou" and "whilst."

But you do like exclamation marks!!!

You are under 40. Or you have teenage children.

3) The Young Counterculturist or Old Fogey - You do not text. You are proud of it. You think all this texting is ruining real communication.

4) The Evolutionist - You are a lapsed stickler. You prefer the term "flexible."

You used to argue that sloppy texting was beyond lazy; it was a linguistic slippery slope. Bad texting habits, you were sure, would contaminate all your writing.

You no longer have time or energy for that fight, and though pride still forces you to try to punctuate correctly when you text, you spend less time correcting your errors unless it involves business.

You realize that life is too short to spend it perfecting your text messages, especially to people who don't notice the difference.

You're not getting any younger, though you hope that texting without periods will make you feel you are.

I probably fall into category 4), but still revert to 1) from time to time. I still eschew many texting conventions (such as typing 'u' for 'you' and so on) and try to capitalise and punctuate correctly but often don't bother going back to correct a missing capital letter or whatever. I don't use texting for business (do many people?) but will always make sure emails are correct, for business or personal.

Damn kids and their new toys.

I agree, arnie. That's probably where I am too. I just finished editing a manuscript that several researchers wrote, and I found myself changing all their "less thans" to "fewer than," which I knew I was being a stickler about.

As for texting for business, I don't think most people do that, unless we're traveling and trying to find each other, or my coordinator will text me if she's going to be late or if someone is sick at home and something at work comes up - that sort of thing.