L is
for LOL
We are in the digital age!
Computers, laptops, tablets, game consoles, smart phones, PDA’s –
connecting to forums, games, newsgroups, Facebook, Twitter, chat rooms, text
messages, emails, and blogs. There are more than 82 million people alone texting
regularly, is it any wonder we've seen the development of another language? A cyber-lingo! You know of which I speak, the combination of
abbreviations and symbols used by people all over the world to communicate with
each other on-line. And just as words
are reduced to a stream of 1’s and 0’s, the language we use every day has also
been converted to fit the new norm. How
familiar are you with all of this?
I found numerous web-sites that all serve as pseudo-dictionaries
for the new on-line language. One site, Netlingo, lists a whopping 2,011
shorthand definitions. A more compact
list, which also includes symbol emoticons, can be found at Mobile1. Here’s a small sample I pulled out (along
with a little commentary by me).
*$ Starbucks (For those coffee
addicts like me)
404 I haven't a clue
9 Parent is
watching (Aha…now I know what that means!)
99 Parent is no
longer watching
::poof:: I'm gone (I bet fantasy
writers use this a lot)
AWGTHTGTTA Are We Going To Have To Go Through This
Again
BB4N Bye Bye for Now
BEG Big Evil Grin (Muwhahaha!)
BFF Best Friends Forever
BMOF Bite Me Old Fart (I bet I’ll start receiving this one now)
FUBAR F***ed Up Beyond All Recognition (Definitely plot issues)
H9 Husband in room (Again…AHA!!)
ILICISCOMK I Laughed, I
Cried, I Spat/Spilt Coffee/Crumbs/Coke On My Keyboard (For those bi-polar
texters)
L8R Later
LOL Laughing Out Loud -or- Lots Of Love
NSS No Sh** Sherlock (Mystery writer –
gotta love it!)
PDQ Pretty Darn Quick
PO Piss Off (For our friends
across the pond)
ROTFLMAO Rolling On The Floor Laughing My
Ass Off
Shhh Quiet
(I just laugh at this one)
TBE Thick Between Ears
YABA Yet Another Bloody Acronym
:) Smiling (Every comment I
leave includes one of these)
:-( Sad
:-|| Angry
:-0 Appalled
;-) Wink
:P Sticking out tongue. (Me being playful,
not trying to French kiss)
<3 Heart (Awwwwwwww)
So you tell me, is this all just time/letter/word economics,
or simple laziness? Where do you stand?
Thanks for some of those translations - now I might understand my kids' texts a bit more.
ReplyDeleteI use this one 'FFS' because I don't swear and people know that if I type or say 'FFS' then I am very upset about something.
<3 ur post.
ReplyDeleteWhen much translation is needed, it's not a time saver. Though maybe it's because I'm old. (sob)
ReplyDeleteWhoa...I'm bookmarking this list, even visiting that site. I stink at texting. My kids totally make fun of me. New goal: learn texting lingo.
ReplyDeleteI saw L8R on a sign the other day. My 9 yo had to tell me what it meant.
ReplyDeleteLove the emoticons. Now I have some new ones to use. :)
I'm such a blonde these confuse me, If I get much beyond LOL, I'm generally LAME or LOMA or something.
ReplyDeleteI mostly stand on the side of these being a sign of laziness but then again, I find I never really have much need to text most of the phrases on your list.
ReplyDeleteI will use the occasional emoticon though but mostly just the simple happy face.
I am proud to say I've never used any of those! I don't text either.
ReplyDeleteI drive my kids nuts -- I refuse to use text-speak when texting whith them. I even use full punctuation!
ReplyDeleteI put in an LOL or a ;^) winky occasionally, but for me it's full words and sentences.
Sorry, I'm a writer -- I have to do what I can to uphold the standards.
BMOF. I love that one and I'll remember to use it to comment on all of your blog posts from now on. ROTF LMAO. ::poof::
ReplyDeleteAs an former English teacher I can't stand texting. It is ruining our kids ability to be able to read longer texts. They are always looking for the shortcuts!
ReplyDeleteI don't text often. If I do, then I use full words, correctly spelled and punctuation. As much as I like technology, sometimes it goes too far!
I use these sparingly. I didn't know NSS. :)
ReplyDeleteI do have a new one though.
FFS
For BLEEP Sake.
Thanks for the comprehensive list!
Heather
The funny thing is I don't see this much in texts but they show up all the time with kids who are chatting. You may want to add POS to your list - Parent Over Shoulder. You know when that or 9 shows up, insert parental right to read chat :)
ReplyDeleteI like MLOL... Maniacal laugh out loud. It's the best way to laugh :)
ReplyDeleteI only knew about half of these. I'm sure my creative guesses on the other half would be very entertaining if you didn't have the answers .
ReplyDeleteI use LOL all the time. Love those LOL Cats. Also BRB - be right back. I don't type it, I say it. My husband thinks that is funny.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind the more common ones, since I see them enough to know what they mean. But I LOVE ::poof:: and am now going to use it all. the. time. It's your fault.
ReplyDeleteI use text and IM lingo cuz I wanna be cool like that. Problem is I find LOL's filtered through my ms. Usually tagged at the end of dialog. Haha!
ReplyDeleteidk ;-)
ReplyDeleteTme Sver. ;P
ReplyDeleteWith all the typing we do, without those symbols, maybe more people would end up with carpal tunnel? Okay, I don't know.
ReplyDeleteI do like the :-) :-|| ones because I think people sometimes don't know if you are joking or not, at at least now there is a visual cue.
My worry is that young texters no longer know how to spell correctly and are unable to write or think in complete sentences. That's the OFOD (old foogy on duty) in me :))
ReplyDeletehttp://gail-baugniet.blogspot.com Theme: A World of Crime
How can it be laziness? Took a lot of effort on someone's part to create it and just as much effort to figure it out and remember it. :) thanks for posting. Most of this I didn't know.
ReplyDeleteI really hate textspeak and Internet abbreviations, and only use very common ones like BTW or FYI. The ones that are nails on a chalkboard the most are DH, DD, DS, DC, and LO. It seems so lazy, inane, silly, and even dehumanizing. Are you too lazy to type "my husband," "my child," or even their names? I often stop reading or skim a post the moment I see someone calling her husband or kids by those goofy textspeak terms!
ReplyDeleteI've never used LOL, and find it really overused. Most annoying are the people who use it as punctuation, and when they're talking about stuff that's not even remotely funny, like "This is a picture of my severe eczema. So painful. LOL" or "My husband was just deployed LOL." I've seriously seen posts that said exactly that!
Wow! Never heard of many of those - neither had my kids who happened to be in the room just now! :)
ReplyDeleteSometimes I'm not sure. I took shorthand when they still taught shorthand in school. I have often called the internet lingo the today's shorthand
ReplyDeleteIts both I'm sure. These are cool translations. Man, our kids are growing up so different than us.
ReplyDelete.....dhole
Thanks for the lesson. I do use some of them. It's a nice short cut.
ReplyDeleteCute post!
ReplyDeletePDQ was around when I was a little kid...pre-texting and email...military word along with AWOL and MIA.
Funny about the new gen...when my son was reading aloud he read Dwight D. Eisenhower as "Dwight D dot Eisenhower."
Happy A-Z April!
:)
ReplyDeleteI resisted lol for a long time. I use it all the time now.
ReplyDeleteIf you type <(") into Facebook chat it makes a penguin. I'm not sure about other applications. Or did you know that already? Am I the last to know?
No WAY can I remember all those! Besides, I like real words :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the list. I didn't know more than half of them. I always use full sentences. I think it's laziness when people don't. I've seen the way those thumbs move when people text. They can type proper sentences quickly if they wanted to!
ReplyDelete