I swear I'm Not writing about You...unless I Am....

I keep trying to read the blog of a(n almost) family member/friend/acquaintance/anonymous person that I know and you don't, and I really should stop.
I end up getting nervous twitches by the end of three posts:

"That apostrophe is in the wrong place...that's the wrong "you're/your"...that's the wrong "there/their/they're"...oh my gosh, why aren't any of these capitalized??"

I cannot focus on any of the content when being bombarded with these and similar thoughts every five seconds.

I know, I know. I'm a snob. I need to get a grip.
And I agree with you.

However!
I don't think I'm completely unjustified in being aggravated by this.

Consider: when you're writing something, a text message or email or blog post, you cannot rely on body language, voice inflection or facial expression the way we instinctively do in person-to-person conversation. The words you put on the page are all we have to decipher your meaning.

With the aid of body language and voice inflection, the person you're talking to does not rely solely on the words being spoken to understand your full meaning. A person could say a redundant and empty statement, "Like, you know?" and depending on the inflection, hand gestures or exaggerated posture it is coupled with, those three words could mean completely different things.

You don't have that advantage when writing. The black and white text (er...or cream and red, in this instance...) is all the reader has with which to judge your intended meaning. You have to write out what would otherwise be implied. What and how you choose to write tells a lot more about you than you may realize.

Example:
If the words "you're" and "your" are misused once or twice, it's not a big deal. No one's perfect and it's easy to get them backwards when you're typing quickly. But when I see them consistently and constantly misused by an author, I infer that I'm either reading something written by a child who hasn't learned the difference yet, or an extremely ignorant adult.

If you are an ignorant adult, you probably can't help but portray yourself as such. If you had the skills to come across as intellectual, you wouldn't be ignorant.
But if you are not ignorant and your writing implies that you are, start paying attention to what you're writing! This isn't about knowing all the grammar rules of English; it's about presenting yourself.

That's my real argument. That's what I'm trying to get to. Writing is not just ranting, it's a way of presenting yourself. You will be judged, not necessarily by your writing skills, but by your thoughtfulness in crafting a written message.

I don't think you can write something and post it/publish it/send it without at least reading over it once or twice. At least. If you don't give a thought to what you're writing then you end up with an over-abundance of smiley emoticons [ :) ] and the word "like" and not nearly enough periods. People read that and think you're an idiot. And you're probably not an idiot, but you write like one, so how are we to know otherwise?

...I'm reading over this and thinking to myself, "This sounds like the rantings of an obsessive perfectionist. Maybe no one else cares about this. Maybe no one else reads crap like

"it was so great :) oh my gosh I can't even tell you :) and it just made my day :) :) :) :) !!!!!1"

and thinks that it's stupid."

You think it's stupid, too, right?
If you've never thought about this, then now is your time to start.
If you're as frustrated with idiot-writers as I am, then would you be interested in starting an anti-idiot-writers facebook group with me? C'mon, :) it'll be super-fun!!!1! :D :D :D !!!!!!!!!