Should we just turn the world into a bunch of people who don't spell anything and just speak and write like we text others?
Why not? Language evolves. If those that use that method of communication succeed in communicating, all is well. And when they use that method to communicate with me they are likely to fail . . in which case they will not achieve any goals that relate to me. Then they have the choice to modify their means of communication.
That being said . . if I need to communicate with a texter to achieve MY goals . . it behooves me to avoid usign words like "behoove" and migrate to "cn u hlp l8r"
I have a great friend who is a teacher and she is having a terrible time with students who write papers with spelling they use for text messages.
That is as much her problem as the children. You can't teach if you can't communicate. Teaching proper time and place may do more good that enforcement of archaic standards. I would say that texters often use a simpler set of rules that make more sense than things like "two" "too" and "to" and "through""tough" and "trough".
Is it that it has become less important in our country?
I recall my sister being encouraged to use any spelling she wanted so that the rules didn't get in teh way of her creativity. . . . And that was at least a decade ago.
Can this be done with other languages?
All but French I think. They are pretty picky about their language. need to ask Quentin to be sure though.