[LINK] The Language of IMs

[rfmcdonald]

infomagic has pointed to Naomi S. Baron's 52-page paper "See You Online: Gender Issues in College Student Use of Instant Messaging" (PDF format), summarized by Michael Schirber in his Livescience.com article "Study: Instant Messaging is Surprisingly Formal :-)". It seems that people tend to use language quite competently in their instant-messaging.

"The most important finding is that IM by college students does not look like bad writing," said Naomi Baron of American University.

Baron reviewed 23 different conversations and surveyed 158 students. When divided along gender lines, the messages between females were more formal – with fewer contractions and better punctuation – than those between males.

"The female IM looks more like a written genre, while the male IM looks more like a spoken genre," Baron told LiveScience in a telephone interview.

Overall, though, the messages surprised Baron with their level of linguistic sophistication – considering that IM gives the impression that it is something you do "as fast as you can," she said.

Myself, I tend to be surprised more often than not when people don't use good grammar, or at least consistent grammar. Not using capital letters leaves my Queen's-educated MA English mind feeling faintly disoriented. Imagining people who IM without using grammar almost hurts me.