Instant messages surprisingly formal  :-)

Gender differences
The level of formality was higher among women than men. In places where a contraction (such as "don’t") could be used, a female IM-ing another female only used the contraction 57 percent of the time.

"I would have expected 90 percent of the time," Baron said. "The females are using a more schooled, standard writing style."

Guys used contractions 77 percent of the time, and their responses were often shorter than those of the women.

This is not to say there were no informal, speechlike aspects to the gals' messages. For example, it took two women on average 41 seconds and nearly 10 exchanges to close a conversation. This is similar to the prolonged goodbyes that characterize face-to-face communication.

Men, perhaps not surprisingly, ended their IM sessions more than twice as quickly.

Multitasking
The study also found that most of the students multitask — searching the Web, playing games, eating, studying — while instant messaging. Perhaps you have an IM conversation going as you read this.

"Adults do a little multitasking," Baron said. "But students have raised multitasking to a fine art."

They also carry on multiple IM conversations at the same time. The average was 2.7, and some students have 12 conversations going simultaneously.

"One of the students said that IM is language under the radar," Baron said.

Like music playing in the background, the students do not put all of their attention into IM, Baron surmised. If that's the case, they must have subconscious spell-checkers.

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