Apr 13, 2012

L is for LOL


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?

33 comments:

  1. SallyApril 13, 2012 at 5:25 AM

    Thanks for some of those translations - now I might understand my kids' texts a bit more.
    I 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.

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  2. Leigh CaronApril 13, 2012 at 5:46 AM

    <3 ur post.

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  3. Theresa MilsteinApril 13, 2012 at 5:50 AM

    When much translation is needed, it's not a time saver. Though maybe it's because I'm old. (sob)

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  4. S.A. LarsenッApril 13, 2012 at 6:05 AM

    Whoa...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.

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  5. StinaApril 13, 2012 at 7:00 AM

    I saw L8R on a sign the other day. My 9 yo had to tell me what it meant.

    Love the emoticons. Now I have some new ones to use. :)

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  6. farawayeyesApril 13, 2012 at 7:07 AM

    I'm such a blonde these confuse me, If I get much beyond LOL, I'm generally LAME or LOMA or something.

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  7. M.J. FifieldApril 13, 2012 at 7:48 AM

    I 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.

    I will use the occasional emoticon though but mostly just the simple happy face.

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  8. Alex J. CavanaughApril 13, 2012 at 7:53 AM

    I am proud to say I've never used any of those! I don't text either.

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  9. StratPlayerCJFApril 13, 2012 at 7:56 AM

    I drive my kids nuts -- I refuse to use text-speak when texting whith them. I even use full punctuation!

    I 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.

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  10. Julie DaoApril 13, 2012 at 8:15 AM

    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::

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  11. HeatherLApril 13, 2012 at 8:22 AM

    As 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!

    I 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!

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  12. Heather M. GardnerApril 13, 2012 at 8:43 AM

    I use these sparingly. I didn't know NSS. :)

    I do have a new one though.

    FFS

    For BLEEP Sake.

    Thanks for the comprehensive list!
    Heather

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  13. Tasha SeegmillerApril 13, 2012 at 9:13 AM

    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 :)

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  14. S. L. HennessyApril 13, 2012 at 9:16 AM

    I like MLOL... Maniacal laugh out loud. It's the best way to laugh :)

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  15. BrindaApril 13, 2012 at 9:21 AM

    I 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 .

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  16. L. Diane WolfeApril 13, 2012 at 10:10 AM

    I 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.

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  17. Tiana SmithApril 13, 2012 at 10:33 AM

    I 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.

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  18. Cassie MaeApril 13, 2012 at 11:12 AM

    I 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!

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  19. MFEO2009April 13, 2012 at 11:23 AM

    idk ;-)

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  20. Tracy JoApril 13, 2012 at 12:30 PM

    Tme Sver. ;P

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  21. wsbharkApril 13, 2012 at 12:51 PM

    With all the typing we do, without those symbols, maybe more people would end up with carpal tunnel? Okay, I don't know.

    I 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.

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  22. Gail M Baugniet - AuthorApril 13, 2012 at 1:41 PM

    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 :))

    http://gail-baugniet.blogspot.com Theme: A World of Crime

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  23. Jessica FergusonApril 13, 2012 at 2:15 PM

    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.

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  24. Carrie-AnneApril 13, 2012 at 2:28 PM

    I 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!

    I'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!

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  25. Jemi FraserApril 13, 2012 at 3:29 PM

    Wow! Never heard of many of those - neither had my kids who happened to be in the room just now! :)

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  26. Gossip_GrlApril 13, 2012 at 3:56 PM

    Sometimes 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

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  27. dolorahApril 13, 2012 at 8:17 PM

    Its both I'm sure. These are cool translations. Man, our kids are growing up so different than us.

    .....dhole

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  28. Jessica SalyerApril 13, 2012 at 10:39 PM

    Thanks for the lesson. I do use some of them. It's a nice short cut.

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  29. MApril 14, 2012 at 12:06 AM

    Cute post!
    PDQ 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!

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  30. Crack You WhipApril 14, 2012 at 2:01 AM

    :)

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  31. Annalisa CrawfordApril 14, 2012 at 6:01 AM

    I resisted lol for a long time. I use it all the time now.

    If 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?

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  32. UnknownApril 14, 2012 at 7:18 AM

    No WAY can I remember all those! Besides, I like real words :)

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  33. Christine RainsApril 15, 2012 at 2:23 PM

    Thanks 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!

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