Do New Media Detain Literacy or create New Literacy?

I have been very critical with New Media in the past in the way they affect tween and teenage literacy and communication capabilities. The limited way in which tools like Twitter, Facebook, and SMS support inter-human communication and the way in which young audiences respond to those limitations by adopting an abbreviated, cryptic and highly ambiguous code as language seems frightening. Especially, when this code then also makes it into the traditional written language: A few months back I received a pile of thank you letters from my son's class for a Show&Tell I had given. To my surprise, the letters of these then 7-graders was full of orthographic and grammatical errors. Moreover, many of the orthographic mistakes the students made were clearly related to the way they communicate if aforementioned New Media, 'bcause', 'wat', and 'yu' just being a few of them.

However, maybe I am thinking to narrow-mindedly? Clive Thompson on the New Literacy references Andrea Lunsford, a Stanford University professors, who is studying this phenomenon and is actually postulating that the New Media makes children write more, more voluntarily and for an existing audience instead of the teacher alone. All of these findings are clearly positive trends that might in the long term improve children's cognitive, communication and problem-solving abilities.

If this is the case then does the language really matter as long as everybody agrees on it?

Or is there a limit to the depth of thinking and articulation that the New Media language imposes on us, which is only suited for news casting but not critical analysis and opinionated discussions?

I guess, only time will show. In the meantime, I am going the safe way, exposing my children to New Media tools while encouraging and supporting them in enjoying old media such as books and dinner table conversations.