>> In real space conversations, Smith-Lovin and Robinson found that in real space, "men interrupted women much more than women interrupted men, whereas same-sex conversations showed very well-coordinated speech with few interruptions" (p. 130). With instant messaging, however, there isn't such a clear division over which gender interrupts the other gender more. In an average 10 minute instant messaging conversation between a male and a female, the male will interrupt around 10 times and the female 8.

>> This may be due to the nature of instant messaging, because one participant cannot see or hear what the other person is typing until that person sends the message, unlike real space conversations. It becomes easy to unknowingly interrupt someone by typing and sending a message at the same time the person whom you’re talking to also sends a message. It’s also difficult to interrupt a person on purpose, as you are unaware if he or she is typing something or not.

>> Deborah Tannen (1994) notes in Gender and Discourse that in real space,"women exhibit minimal or no difficulty finding something to talk about, and they talk about a small number of topics... men exhibit great difficulty finding something to talk about... so they produce small amounts of talk about each of a great number of topics" (p. 99). But in all three types of instant messaging exchanges (male-male, female-female, male-female), topics are frequently switched. Males spend on average 3 minutes and 5 seconds on any one topic, while females spend approximately 3 minutes and 42 seconds on one topic. In mixed conversations, the average length of time given to one topic is 3 minutes and 20 seconds.

>> Males and females also speak approximately the same amount in male-female conversations, unlike in real space, where male dominance in conversations is frequently noted. In the studied conversations, men spoke on average 54% of the time, while women spoke 46% of the time.