While this research has broad implications for thinking about the language styles used by men and women, it also tells us something about the peculiar mode of discourse that is tweeting. Unlike more settled genres of interaction, Twitter has yet to establish well-defined norms of usage. It’s the Wild West of language, which makes it both exciting and daunting for linguistic scholars. Lying somewhere in the gray zone between speech and writing, Twitter-ese can shine a light on how we make up the rules of language use as we go along.