technoculture314-09

However, I was wondering what people think of this notion: that guys and girls do not have inherently different texting styles, styles that are masculinised or feminised on different occasions, but rather that a person's texting is gender-appropriate for the proposed receiver of the message. Perhaps what appears to be an inherent feminine or masculine style is really due to girls primarily messaging other girls, and guys primarily messaging other guys. The fact that my boyfriend communicates with a lot of girls could explain why his general style is arguably a more feminised one (smiley faces, exclamation marks etc). A person's texting style, then, to me, has more to do with the person they are messaging, rather than the texter’s own gender. As a girl, I am aware that I too alter my texting style when messaging guys other than my boyfriend.

Something further to add: Some time ago I was woken at 4 am due to my cell phone ringing. Because I did not recognise the number (and because I generally dislike anyone who decides to call me at four in the morning), I proceeded to ignore it. Next thing you know, I receive a text message from the same number, saying, "hey, where you at? Its sam" (a name that could belong to a guy or a girl, so already the gender of this person was being questioned). I replied, saying, "sorry dude, wrong number". (I tend to use the word 'dude' for both guys and girls, so I wasn't making any assumptions about the texter's gender.) Then I get the reply "this isnt Mel or Tiff?". "Nope", I say. (Sounded as though this poor guy (by this point I’d started to assume the person was a 'he') had been given a fake number). Then: "Gutted. Sorry man".

Apparently because I had used the word 'dude', I was assumed to be a male, and so received a 'male-appropriate' reply. Funny that...