I kinda agree. But then again I do find it has utility; people can use it to express emotion, which previously has been a sticking point for purely textual communications. Consider:

And then they all died! #upset #crying

versus:

And then they call died! #hellyeah

I quite like this sort of hacking.

However, the example you give is dark humor, so you win me over there.

Q: How do you rank yourself among writers (living) and of the immediate past?

Nabokov: I often think there should exist a special typographical sign for a smile – some sort of concave mark, a supine round bracket, which I would now like to trace in reply to your question.

And even the best writers, when writing quickly in an immediate medium like the internet, can get it wrong.

I think that is the key; when interacting socially there is no need to make sure your writing is top notch and expresses your emotions adequately. You just stick a smilie on :)

Consider a real-life conversation. You wouldn't pause for several minutes to make sure the next sentence properly conveyed what you wanted to say. But you might smile and wink at the end of a put-down to show it was a joke.

It was, and for that reason people who say "lol", or use it in blog posts, are difficult for me to take seriously.

I can't remember exactly where I first encountered the plus prefix (it's been a long time), but I remember # and + more than &.

Three mistakes of grammar in a paragraph about relaxed written communication. A self-evidencing post!

(Boy is this off topic!)

Come to the store with my Dad and I. (no) Come to the the store with I.

Come to the store with my Dad and me. (yes) Come to the the store with me.

Dad and me went to the store. (no) Me went to the store.

Dad and I went to the store. (yes) I went to the store.

Remove the third party and it's immediately obvious which to use.

Regardless, 'me' is always correct as the object of a prepositional phrase because it's an object pronoun. 'I' is a subject pronoun.

#grammersux