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Definitions
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Richard Holeton
Perpetual Change
"Language, then, like everything else, gradually transforms itself over the centuries. There is nothing surprising in this. In a world where humans grow old, tadpoles change into frogs, and milk turns into cheese, it would be strange if language alone remained unaltered." - Jean Atchison, Language Change: Progress or Decay?, p. 4
Undoubtedly, there are many specific types of changes and just as many reasons for them, not all of which are entirely understood. The kind of change demonstrated in the emergence of Netspeak relates to vocabulary.
Abbreviations such as "brb" for "be right back," or the more controversial alternate spelling of "later" as "l8r" become words in their own right due to frequency of use.
The probable reason behind these coinages is found in the so-called "functional" view of language change, proposed by Jean Aitchison, author of Language Change: Progress or Decay? Namely, language alters itself according to people's needs (1991). Because of the constraints of communicating online, people develop conventions that compensate for them.