Patterns of Speech and Instant Messages

I was hoping the results of Naomi Baron's pilot study were going to tell me definitively, "Yes, the patterns of speech and instant messages are the same" or "No, instant messages follow patterns of written language." But the end of the chapter left me feeling that the question is one that can't be answered in such either/or terms.

Perhaps, IM is a form of language all it's own - a hybrid of writing and speech. In Crystal's chapter on email, he suggests the same may be true of that medium as well. Whether it is email, instant message, or text message, I think each is dynamic in use. A user may email as a written form of a communication act and as a spoken form for another. This would be evidenced in the composer's attention to greetings and closings, use of contractions and emoticons, and structure of the message.