Guys, bear with me.....
OK, first things first: no, I am NOT on medication.
But..... BUT!! -- I have long lamented and despaired at the continuing degradation and corruption of our English language by the younger generation hastened along by "text speak", which shows its most odious form in online communication. As a boy who grw up reading Jack London and Edgar Allen Poe literally with the proverbial dictionary by his side (I couldn't stand not knowing what words like "primordial" and "aghast" (!) meant!) I have come to appreciate the eloquence of a well-muscled vocabulary and the ability to pinpoint the intent of a phrase or meaning in rapier-sharp fasion by the choice of a keenly-specific word or term--something sadly lacking in the younger generations' "communicative skills" (yes, I use that term very loosely!).
Like you, I have suffered seeing the singular "u" (not even capitalized!) as a substitute for a proper, respectful "You". I have gnashed my teeth (as have YOU) at the use of "2" as a cheap stand-in for "to". Alas, I had perhaps naively believed that my generation and that of those who came before me have been the stalwart guardians of the gift of Vernacular, and the defenders of all the peripherals which gird this Art like the mighty towers flanking a castle keep; namely, proper punctuation and capital letters. Yet to my horror, I have started to notice that the acceptance and even (*shudder*) usage of this form of stunted communication has started to appear in my fellow "Boomers'" online communications.
Proper punctuation is the online, literary equivalent of the lilting of the voice that accomplanies the lifting-pitch of the question; the strong, declarative downward-pitch of the statement, confident and bold, indicated by the exclamation point. Without these visual literary cues, the world of online communication is as colorless, as banal and uninteresting and indecipherable as a piece of modern art on the commons, where anyone is free to interpret the words on the page as whatever they choose. "do you want to eat grandma". Well does she? Or DO YOU? It pained me just typing it.
To those of you who have abandoned our precious question mark; I ask you--what is it about this lady which causes to displease? Look at her erotic curves. Lose yourself in the power of her allure...are you not enthralled? 
Even if you cannot appreciate her beauty, how can you leave her out in the cold? Consider, if you will, the fire of the Question Mark's vibrant shape and color...
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Are you not inspired??? Do you not feel the purple rain?
Who is brave enough to declare your support for this timelessand ancient symbol? Who will champion our right and intent to ask questions and to let others know that we do indeed possess intellectual curiosity?--or perhaps that we're just hungry for say, pizza? You can make it your fashion! Wear your heart on your sleeve--or your face if you go that way..?
Fellow Modelers! Friends! Countrymen and Brothers! I ask you now--stand with me, and declare your fealty and loyalty to our question mark! We must stand together, united and strong, and declare that we will not accept a world where online inquiry is sacrificed on the altar of convenience and the saving of .003 microseconds out of one's day! We must resist the imposition of a world where no questions can be found, where the tyranny of only statements and incomplete phrases run roughshod over those of us with curioisity and the boldness to present that in correct punctuation! We must declare our love for the question mark! Mustn't we??
Do it for love! Do it for the future! Do it FOR THE CHILDREN! I ASK YOU, WILL YOU JOIN ME?
