I'm proofreading now and going through and adjusting the contractions. I'm not a fan as I feel they are a lazy way to write, however to keep the flow in dialogue it is essential to use them.

I tend to use them more when describing the younger generation and don't use them to create more emphasis, for example "You are the brother that he should have had."

I have to admit it's cut my word count down considerably, yet I never used them originally when I wrote my manuscript, but I'm trying to balance them so there aren't too many in a given sentence.

Do you use them when you write or adjust them afterwards?

I really don't like contractions. I used to work for a Korean editing company, and one of their rules there is to never use contractions when writing a formal essay. I guess I imbibed that, and I still follow that rule. However, when I am just writing for a blog post or Facebook, I still use contractions.

I think that it depends on what I am writing, and also what i am trying to say. To emphasize a point, it is often better to use the whole written out words, like you mentioned, Alvin.
If I am just posting something on Facebook, I will usually use contractions just so it takes up less space.
I think that the variability of using or not using them adds to the way that the writing is perceived, and I like to pick and choose which way I do it depending on what I am writing. 

I use contractions in dialogue because it's how most of us tend to speak. There is a natural flow to it for conversation.

For the rest, however, I avoid contractions entirely. I see them as informal and never use them in professional works, regardless of if it's fiction or non-fiction.

I use them when I want to have a more casual voice. What really bothers me, though, is when they don't have an apostrophe and almost become phonetic accents. "Wanna", "gonna", and "kinda" are an eyesore to me, but "ain't" is fine. I'm even all right with "a'ight" because I've heard people talk that way, although I guess that's technically phonetics.

I don't consider it lazy.

I mean, I do not consider it lazy.

It depends on the voice. I tried to write a fanfiction once, crossing over with fandoms where one had characters with really long lifespans, and one character joked about how they knew another character was older than they looked because they refused to use contractions. Immortal characters could probably say the whole word because they always feel like they've got time for that.