The grammar in technology

  For my final paper I chose to read the book The Shallows by Nicholas Carr.  It was about how technology from the past and present has affected our brains.  As a Biomedical Engineer, I found this extremely interesting and agreed with almost everything I read because I felt that my brain was, indeed, changing.  For this blog post I want to only focus on one part of the book -- grammar, syntax, and writing skills.
  Carr only focused on this for a very short duration of the book, but I thought the subject was profound. He was emphasizing that as digital word processors became a normality, the writing and language skill of several people basically went out the window.  While this may not be true for those who are in English-related majors, I feel that this is extremely true for the general population (or maybe this just seems exaggerated because I go to a tech-school where writing is not a priority).
  Before there were programs like Microsoft Word, whenever someone wrote anything, they had to ensure perfection before it was printed.  Printing was an incredible innovation in itself, but once something was printed and distributed, there was no going back and editing any mistakes.  Therefore, writers had to edit and re-edit countless times to make sure their ideas were succinct and clear.  Once word processors came out, writers were blessed with the convenience of being able to easily edit their works on the computer with a simple delete button, easily reprinting their work, or as the internet became a convenience, just go online and edit their online document.
  The convenience of editing one's work led to people gradually becoming less diligent about their writing.  People edited less, and in this huge domino-effect type scenario, people became less attuned to proper grammar and syntax.  While some can disagree and say they used slang on AOL Instant Messenger since they were 10 years old and basically invented words, one can argue right back and say the adults of Facebook have no idea how to write.  Yes, Facebook can be treated as a relaxed, social environment, but when everyone can see it including younger people, these writing habits become engrained in our minds.  The end result is that no one knows proper grammatical rules -- I don't even know them.  But I find it a shame when my mother, a teacher in an elementary school, comes home and says that her coworkers don't even differentiate between "good" and "well" properly in front of their students. 
  Even while I write passionately about this issue, in the back of my mind I'm wondering (and I'm sure other people would too), what does it matter?  As technology becomes more streamlined and the importance of grammar seems to be less and less important, is it really that bad that few people know these things?  I'm not really sure, but after thinking about this I think I'm just old fashioned.