A. ANALYZING INTERACTIONS IN DIFFERENT MEDIA
After collecting some samples of different kinds of text-based digitial interactions I saw a lot of differences in style, language, tone, and usage.
1. The types of text-based digital interactions that use the most emoticons and short forms are by far texting. I personally keep my punctuation and spelling as correct as I know how. Fragments are as crazy as I go, but I receive a lot of abbreviations and lack of punctuation a lot. Email comes next. If it is from a friend it looks very similar to the texting, but if it is to a boss or teacher the email is more meticulously written. Facebook wall posts can be hit or miss. I’m less concerned about it being perfect than I am with homework, but it isn’t something I take too much time on. Because those interactions are mostly based on informal conversation they are more relaxed. Blogging on the other hand requires more correct grammar because that alludes to whether the information is credible.
2. Time, space, and media richness do apply to the differences. I do think, however, that the norms come into play as well. If correct gramar is not expected, then a lot of people won’t bother regardless. Texting has a finger keyboard which is not exactly comfortable or easy to type a lengthy message. Most people would blog on an actual computer, I think, and that is a lot easier to type any amount of length. Blogs are also not just quick conversation messages. Blogs are used to convey a message, so more time would be put into them.
B.
If emoticons were removed it would definately affect interpretation. I am one of those people who over use emoticons because I like people to know how I feel and it just isn’t easy to convey that with the original message unless you added words to explain explicitly how you feel. I can say what I want and show how I feel with a simple one click. My friend does not use any at all and I always feel like she is irritated or blunt, but she never actually is, she just doesn’t ever use emoticons or exclamation points. So where I would say
Okay! (:
she says
Ok.
Honestly, they look very different, but we both had the same meaning and emotion, expressed differently.
sarahnormanuno 
I’m curious…How difficult is it to understand a message (say from someone you don’t know) when punctuation is not used at all? I also tend to use proper grammar, etc. and laughed when I read that “fragments are as crazy” as you go. I have a couple of joke/examples of how the punctuation completely changes the meaning of the paragraph. If I can locate them, I will post them.
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Here’s an example, Brenda: “Let’s eat Grandma.” Of course, without the comma, the sentence could read that the speaker wants to actually eat Grandma. Here’s another example: “Woman without her man is lost.” Without correct punctuation, it’s difficult to tell if it is the woman or the man who is lost.
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