George, I'm not a fan of text talk either. In fact, i Hate it. I had hoped with the introduction of T9 and other mobile phone dictionaries it would teach kids to spell and write words in full. Unfortunately i don't think that's happened.

I do however like to write as i speak and it certainly isn't borne out of laziness.
For example: gonna instead of going to, cos instead of because. ye ken?

I think this is slightly more acceptable.
By the way,, u're is actually replacing 6 characters , you're
Frank.