Communication, Instant Messaging and Other New Media

Text-Based Messages Compared to Other Forms of Communication

Text-based communication, regardless of the specific modality, has been compared to other forms of communication but particularly to face-to-face communication and voice communication over the phone. Relative to these other forms of communication, text-based communication (a) allows one to take time to communicate, including editing responses; (b) gives the flexibility to communicate without being interrupted by the other; (c) can be asynchronous, which means that two people with different temporal schedules can still easily communicate; (d) presents the opportunity for the same message to be sent to several people simultaneously; and (e) allows for—and in many cases, requires—brief messages. Text-based communication also represents an economical way to communicate; for example, there is no need to pay the expense of transportation to meet for face-to-face conversation. However, relative to face-to-face and voice communications, text-based communication has lower social presence and reduced social cues. That is, the other is less “present” in the interaction, and therefore, there are fewer cues as to the other person's characteristics and emotional reactions. Messages that require nonverbal cues for interpretation, such as sarcasm, can lead to misunderstandings. To compensate, various paralanguages (e.g., emoticons) have been developed. Another disadvantage of text-based communication is that less information can be transmitted in the same amount of time because vocal speech is faster than the process of writing text messages on a computer or mobile phone. In addition, text-based messages, particularly when there is anonymity, can lead to disinhibition in behavior including flaming. This behavior involves writing negative comments and interpersonal attacks and can occur in any text-based medium. There are also distinctions among the modalities of text-based communications. For example, instant messaging and mobile phone texting tend to be more interactive, informal, and synchronous than e-mail. Mobile texting, a function on cell phones similar to messages sent through the Internet, is limited to brief messages because of (a) bandwidth limitations of cell phone carriers and (b) the limitations of the inputting text on a traditional telephone keypad (many new cell phone models, however, offer miniature keyboards to aid in mobile messaging). Unlike the other modalities, social network sites generally have two forms of text messaging: traditional site-specific person-to-person messaging and a comment board. Although anyone can send a private personal message to another user, comment boards are designed to be publicly viewed, but only approved users have posting rights. Although e-mail is now used by people of almost all ages, the other forms of text-based communication technologies are used primarily by teenagers and young adults.

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