Slang

I've never considered myself a big advocate of slang, but thinking back to Jr. High, I actually employed it a great deal (dude, like, duh, etc.) and will even use some of it now, mostly only when talking to my younger teenage sister. Though I do tend to avoid some of the more 'young-and-foolish' sounding words like biff and woof. I will, on the other hand, say things like jiffed, goon, and dope. For me, it's all about mimickry-- communicating in the best way they can understand me. But for my sister and her friends, I know it's all about creating a group identity; their own subculture that they can claim as absolutely their own. This is clear because they even make up words of their own that aren't really on a universal level by other teenagers or even in their own school; as a small (or somewhat small) group of friends, they make up words of their own for things and they switch them out and modify them on a regular basis. I wish that I could come up with some immediately, but I just can't think of any... maybe biff is one of them.
Anyway, though, she doesn't really code-switch between different situations; these words are incorporated into her everyday vocabulary and she uses them with everyone everywhere.
Dalzell's article didn't impact me so much as changing my views, but merely getting myself thinking about what I have noticed in relation to what he's said. I also think that ideas of slang are true on both sides of the debate; it can be both helpful and hurtful.