Intellectual laziness or how spell check destroyed the world

Is it my imagination or does the average "joe" appear more linguistically challenged than ever? Sometimes it seems like my cat is smarter than most of my college educated co-workers. From "conversate" to "where are you at?", the level of acceptable grammar, syntax and general expression in and out of the workplace has deteriorated to little more than dressed-up street slang with a bit of regional vernacular on the side.