WHO AM I on the Internet???

This is an email from one of my tutors. As you can see from the layout, there are subject line (in green box), salutation (in orange box), message (in brown box) and a complimentary close (in red box). The purpose is to inform us about next class's schedule. The audience is his students. Since the relationship between the sender and receiver is a teacher-student one, the register is better to be formal. This explains why, in the main message, my tutor used complete and complex sentences.He wants to be perceived as a professional and serious tutor.

This is a face book conversation from my friends. A number of emoticons such as ><, ==, XD (in green boxes) are used. Code-mixing can also be seen (words with blue line), they are English mixing Chinese and the use of "D" meaning "a bit of". The use of informal languages suggest that they are friends and they want to show their solidarity to each other. Especially they want to be identified as in-group friend rather than an outsider.

They use informal language is also because of media effects. Most people now use smart phones to get access to facebook, they may not be willing to put too much efforts into typing long sentences. Rather, they use a combination of emoticons and code-mixing to express their messages as quick as possible.

The language used online depends largely on the purpose, audience and how the senders want to be perceived or how they build up their image through using different kinds of words. Every one can be a totally different person when they go online.