Prof. Grassl has written truly and with great insight to the ultimate result of “whatever” and “you know what I meant even if I didn’t spell it correctly” that comes from texting speak or other such language laziness. Yet the masses, even on FR, wail and gnash their keyboards at “spelling/grammar Nazis” who try to show how error in correctly expressing oneself can create an impression of poor thinking skills.
The ultimate admission of Grassl’s contention that the ability to think has been lost is the ubiquitous use of “ya know”. It is a placeholder in conversational flow which serves as a stand-in for “I’m not able to form a coherent thought at this point so please just empathize with my riff.”