The Boston.com's Erin McKean discusses humanity's need to use contractions. She calls it an ingenuity which demonstrates that it is not laziness in language that drives clippings and shortcuts, but a very human combination of eagerness (or hurriedness) to express our ideas. Shortening words isn't a sign of ignorance, but a reflection of deeper knowledge.
Erin also looks at the history behind the shortest contraction in the English language: the word OK.