Instant and test messaging—IM and SMS—are growing at mind-boggling rates. In direct proportion to that growth, civility, grammar, and spelling seem to be going out the window. That’s the conclusion of a study of 1,000 online Australians conducted by ninemsn. Almost half of those surveyed regularly use IM at work, and 90% of them don’t think spelling and grammar are important in their online communication.

An article in The Advertiser quotes ninemsn consumer services director Dominic Finnegan: “Formality is the first casualty of online communication.” The article includes five key guidelines of SMS and IM communication.