Published by Leyre Velasco, 17th May 2012

If you don’t have the foggiest idea about what today’s title post means, all the more reason for reading it.

We recently published Kids and technology: 6 basic rules to bear in mind in order to emphasize how important it is to encourage your teen to trust you and to share with you who his online friends are, what personal data he has facilitated on his Internet profiles as well as various other safety tips.

But .. what good is it that your child shares with you his WhatsApp, Messenger, or Skype conversations if you do not understand half the things he or others write?

What is LOL? What do the symbols xD stand for? Why FAIL? Why is your son, who usually gets outstanding marks in English, all of the sudden making atrocious spelling mistakes in Facebook?

Relax, breathe deeply. Your child simply speaks the Internet slang, a language with its own communication rules, plagued by new terms, acronyms and symbols mainly used in forums, chats, blogs and social networks and rapidly spreading to other common places such as the email at the workplace.

LOL
LOL

And I am warning you .. the vast majority of users are fluent in it, so please, do learn some basics and please, please, please, do not ask your child to follow the formal written English rules or the BBC standard English rules because this simply is not cool therefore it just won’t happen. It is not about wrecking any language rule possible –Internet users do not appreciate this either – yet there are unwritten and written rules that have become common practice amongst Internet users.

So, if you not only want to belong to the community but also want to understand what is discussed here, you have no other choice but to learn some basic terms. And don’t forget to always use your wit! As a study by the University of Tasmania published by the BBC called Do not be 404, know techslang points out, while the use of Internet slang saves the writer time, it takes the reader twice to understand the message.

The list of terms is endless, but here you will find some of the most used terms. And stop feeling like a fish out of water!

Acronyms:

  • AKA: Also Known As. Used to list aliases a person, movie, book, etc.. is known as.
  • ASAP: As soon as possible.
  • LOL: Acronym for Laughing Out Loud or the Lot Of Laughs, it means noisy or loud laughter.
  • IMO / IMHO: Acronym for In My Opinion / In My Humble / Honest Opinion.
  • BRB: Be right back.
  • BTW: By the way.
  • THX: Thanks!
  • OMG: Oh my God
  • WTF: What the fuck. Rude as it is, excuse us for including it here but it has become common practice.
  • FAIL: Or sometimes, Epic Fail. Mistake of huge proportions, very often used to express disappointment at failure.

Symbols:

  • xD: Small face representing the expression of a smile with your eyes closed and tight. Used when you want to share a joke.
  • o_0: Face with eyes wide open. Indicates confusion.
  • ^ ^ ^: Long laugh
  • XOXO: If the person you like writes this, it means that they are sending kisses.
  • XXX: Kissing.

Do you dare send a funny acronym you learnt with your teen?