Yes, of course I'm not saying the whole article is pointless. And if I were a parent educating my kids in English, I would still tell them to say "please" and "

Yes, of course I'm not saying the whole article is pointless. And if I were a parent educating my kids in English, I would still tell them to say "please" and "thank you" as that's what is expected socially, at least at the moment. The point I'm trying to make is that I don't think the kids will become "raging a------", as a parent in the article says. The worst thing that can happen is an evolution of the language, such that ways of address that would label you as a "raging a------" today will be the new normal. There may be some awkward situations along the way but I'm sure people will adjust just fine (assuming that evolution really happens). By the way, you are right about the formal and informal verb forms in Spanish, but in Spain the formal forms are used less and less in everyday conversation and are probably headed for extinction in a few decades (unlike Latin America, where they still seem to be going strong). 100 years ago they were used even for parents and older members of the family, 50 years ago only for superiors and strangers, and right now mostly for rather old strangers, with the threshold age slowly going up as the formal verb forms make many people "feel old" so they ask to be addressed informally. This gradual process has always been accompanied by a drip of opinion pieces in newspapers about how we are losing manners, but life goes on :)