Conformity

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Who's been called out for his English sounding too formal? It bothers me a lot. Being called out for how your English sounds is a hint that it's out of the ordinary and drawing attention to yourself, which I find undesirable. I came across this quote from Emily Post, and while it's from 1927, I think it still applies in some ways.

Post, Emily. Etiquette: "the Blue Book of Social Usage". United Kingdom, Funk & Wagnalls, 1927.

I dealt with this as a kid, and I got flak occasionally from customers when I did tech support for sounding like I was reading off of a script.

I don't really know how to code switch so I end up with a mix of overly formal and overly informal traits no matter what the context I'm speaking in.

Cannot advise well on this topic. About speaking too formal, but understood most of the Emily Post quote.
My writing / speech pattern has been almost impossible for me to doing the dumb down in language . Instead, .i will throw in local phrases and idioms instead .Even unconciously mimicking local dialecks . Regularily .
Have found for myself the appearance of talking down to a person , maybe misconstrued as patronizing .
But Emily Posts advise is probably well advised .

I think I know how to code-switch but have also gotten into the habit of speaking/writing grammatically correct because of school.

Thankfully, I hardly get called out for it in person. In fact, it gives a lot of people, especially adults, an impression of good education. Unfortunately, people think I’m putting on airs online.

When I was younger it was usually well received by adults and authorities, but it didn't always go over well with peers.

As an adult it sometimes gets a negative reception from peers, all that's changed is that those peers are now the age of the adults who acted impressed by it. I guess I'm not babyface enough for it to come off as cute and precocious so it just comes off as smug or "try-hard".

Oh well, I refuse to allow that to be a me problem, as far as I'm concerned it's a them problem.

Online, it only comes across as putting on airs when written - probably because text is prone to misinterpretation.

That's probably a factor. I wonder if people are more likely to try to engage in "try-hard" behaviour online, which might also contribute to people assuming it's "putting on airs" rather than natural.