Gender and Text Messages

From the BBC :

Text messages sent by men are shorter and use more sarcasm and swearing than those sent by women, says a study from Sheffield Hallam University.

But the messages get longer when men are writing to women, say researchers.

Women's text messages are more likely to show "support and affection", claims the research, led by Dr Simeon Yates.

"Both sexes have adapted the technology in slightly different ways in order to meet their own communication needs," says Dr Yates.
...
Men were ready to swap short and more aggressive text messages, using "sarcasm, sexual humour and swearing". But they changed their text style when sending a message to women, writing longer and more substantial messages.

I'm not at all sure this has any great significance : it's more likely a matter of cultural conditioning than anything else. Blokes text messages would tend to be Blokey in the natural order of things; it's not just accepted, but in certain societies required, that males be moderately uncouth when talking amongst themselves. But when either sex is conversing with a Lady, they are supposed to behave with a little more decorum. That's the way they've been educated.