But the social media sites are a different kettle of fish...they are hardly a business environment where you would expect people to be more formal in their communication. As for younger people being more flippant...they could do well to realise that they may be dealing with someone of the older generation who expects and appreciates a bit of formality in business dealings.

I rarely get questions from anyone (:() but I don't really mind if someone is not totally formal in their questions. Buyers are just regular people - some formal, some not. In a department store setting, a potential buyer will use their own language to communicate with a staff member, so the same most likely applies on the internet. Aslong as the message gets across, that's the main thing, IMO.

With the advent of iPhones and all of that, I feel it's actually decreasing the formality of online messages as far as grammar and punctuation.