Submitted by ElizabethMany of us who use the internet have come across various terms or phrases which are confusing or foreign. Over time the language of the internet takes over and you may find yourself saying "wtf" or "idk" out loud instead of typing it on Facebook. For example, the "...without pity" idea is taken from the website "Television Without Pity," where posters write recaps of TV shows and there are message boards set up to discuss, rant, and rave about famous and infamous characters.
Are there any online acronyms, often heard quotes, or new terms which you remember needing to look up? What about words you think others may confuse that you think it would be good to clarify?
37 comments:
I was new to the blogging world when I first started this blog back in July and knew none of these.
I remember someone posting a comment to Linda to STFU. I posted it. Linda emailed me and asked me what it meant. I had to ask my son who also directed me to Urban Dictionary. Linda and I had a good laugh over it and I promised to look everything up before I posted after that.
Nina that is too funny! I have to say I was not aware before getting into Gosselin blogging that people had 'sock puppets' or different screennames. I mean, I have a yahoo ID and have an AIM account, but that was all before using my gmail for this account (and I never really used those online for anything but IMing anyway). I guess I just didn't understand why people would see the need to have their main ID and then use a ton of other names to hide who they really are. Actually, its still something I don't understand but I guess that's life :).
I have learned a lot about online lingo from my friends who are into different sites like "I Can Has Cheezburger," YTMND, and Fark. Urban Dictionary is great also-- its a good way to figure out what things mean. As the post says, I have in the past said "WTF" out loud just as a reflex, and have joked with friends in lolcat speak.
Nina, that is so funny that you guys looked up STFU. Its kinda like telling someone to JFGI and then they look that up :).
Ok now I had to go look up JFGI.
I again had no clue what that meant.
Hey Linda, how about you?
Lol, I had to look it up. Had no clue.
can someone tell me what IIRC is? what about DH?
themrs, in most cases IIRC means 'if I recall correctly.' DH is usually Dear Husband... so then you can guess what DW, DD, and DS are (wife, daughter and son).
I get tripped up sometimes with ITA-- I have seen it used as 'I totally agree' as well as 'I think also'...
I only know OMG, LOL, and WTF. I think I can guess what STFU is (something similar to WTF? a more nasty way of saying shut up?). Everything else I'll have to look up. Not that I'll retain it, it's just not a part of my everyday vocabulary. Most times I can figure it out by reading the rest of the post, but sometimes I have no clue.
I used to have to look things up online when I saw them too. I also started in July (I think). I had to look up what a troll was. I had to ask what DH, DD...et. al was. I had to ask about HOM (High order Multiples) and there are probably still thinks I don't know.
When I was in grad school, one of my professors had her 13 year old write an acronym quiz to test our knowledge (for a child psych class). I was thinking...."Oh, no problem, I got this." YEAH RIGHT!!!!
Can you believe this was one of them~ BTDTBTTS
If you can get that, I'll pay ya 5 bucks (haha).
I cheated, I looked it up. I won't spoil it for anyone who wants to try and figure BTDTBTTS out though. (At first I was thinking "Better To Do The(something)Than To (something), but I was wrong.
And is it okay if I don't use 'computer speak' all the time? I think if I find something funny, I'll just say "that was so funny" instead of LOL.
OK--never heard of "urban dictionary" but typed in NoMoreDrama's dare and got all sorts of offensive language and still don't have the answer.
Eileen--I'm with you. I don't know much about this stuff. Anya has been nice enough to explain "avatar" to me and people have walked me through Google ID. I never go there first to sign in, which is what I have to do to use my ID posting here. I get in the internet, check my email, check here, PerezHilton.com (I know!!....), bravoTV blogs and that's about it, unless I'm looking for a recipe. Hillbilly Housewife was some good reading. I wouldn't follow her $45 and $75 menus, but it was FASCINATING to read, thinking someone would eat it. If you were on the verge of starving, I would understand, but otherwise, WOW, felt bad.
Oh, CincyMom, I'm lost all the time. My husband and my kids are trying to help me, but I'm thinking that they are giving me up as a lost cause!
The difference between trolling and lurking is one people mix up. Reading other sites without commenting whether you agree with the blog's general tone or not is lurking. If you visit a blog and post inflammatory comments meant to annoy and anger the regular posters, or throw off the discussion, that's trolling.
when you want me to tell, I will :-)
I think of it as brain exercise,
trying to figure all those things out. I got BTDTBTTS, but I had to,
um, google JFGI.
My personal favorite is FITH.
I started going to forums and message boards a few years ago. I remember being completely lost about all those acronyms but not wanting to constantly ask. Usually someone else finally asked. :)
AFAIK (as far as I know)
KWIM (know what I mean)
YMMV (your mileage may vary)
ROTFLMAO--rolling on the floor laughing my a** off.
Who knew? There were others but I puzzled over these for awhile.
OMG! Nina that incident with Manda (right?) was my first inclination that the Gosselin blogosphere was completely nuts!
Who's Manda? I didn't know what a sock was until I looked it up and the whole PM crazy opened my eyes to that. The whole business with other people stealing peoples handles on other discussion boards is just pathetic.
indianprincess said...Who's Manda?
Hi Indianprincess, she's a vocal Gosselin critic who isn't too fond of this site. LOL.
Eileen said... And is it okay if I don't use 'computer speak' all the time? I think if I find something funny, I'll just say "that was so funny" instead of LOL
Please! :-)
After months of blogging, I think I know the most common acronyms and even throw in a few now and then.
I do have a question though - do any of you see this type of communication creeping into other areas?
The reason I ask is because I received an email recently from a much younger colleague. The email concerned a business matter and it contained at least two or three of these acronyms. I was a bit surprised and it didn't improve my opinion of her.
So I was just curious if others have seen this too and what is being done to prepare young people to know when this type of communication is acceptable and when it's not? Or maybe I am off-base and everyone will talk like this in the future (kind of hope I am wrong about that).
Anya, I tend to think that professional communications should remain...professional, meaning no lolcats or internet acronyms. Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, though. I know a lot of people are less formal in email communication than in other forms (like, say, if they were writing an actual letter), but I can't bring myself to be that way.
Anya said...
I do have a question though - do any of you see this type of communication creeping into other areas?
I have heard teens say "OMG" and "Bff" while speaking to me. I have received a note from someone who spelled the words you are, "U R."
A lot of acronyms also stem from the big texting world. Doesn't it cost more per letter or something?
Kikibee and NoMoreDrama:
Got it!
Ok Nomoredrama
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Indian Princess,
I know what you mean about "stealing" screen names. Apparently Jon and I are quite an item. I wonder if he knows that.
Anya, I see this lingo used a lot in personal emails from friends and family that Instant Message and have been going on the blogs for years. My sister-in-law and I used to yell at everyone and tell them that if they ever email us that have to do it in English because we don't understand the language of computer! And I definitely can see the benefit of using it when texting. But in business? I guess I'm really from the 'old school', I took business courses and 'letter writing' was actually one of the courses (can you imaging?). That would be considered totally unacceptable, at least way back then anyway.
Yes, Anya! I have and awful time with my high school students using acronyms in their writing. It is like banging my head against a brick wall. I finally came up with the idea to give them an assignments using only acronyms (some that I found and some that I created) in the instructions and none of them could figure it out. They finally got the point that using acronyms is not the always the best way to communicate, and that there are definitely situations when writing everything out is best.
They still do it occasionally, though (sigh). It will be interesting to see what affect this will ultimately have on our language, both written and verbal.
It stand for Been There, Done That, Bought the T-Shirt.
I could not believe it and, no, none of us got it that day.
Sorry, I meant to say 'can you IMAGINE - not imaging. I guess I lost the 'art' of letter-writing!
Glo, I think writing and communicating in this way is the wave of the future, as future generations take over it will be the norm.
Like most of us I text (txt) Instant message (im) and email frequently. I have to be extremley careful when emailing for business purposes bc little acronymns like bc (because) and w/o (with outslip into my writing w/o (with out). How sad is that? There were tons of acronymns I wasnt familiar with a few months ago, thank goodness for Google.
I had to look up almost all of tha acronyms on this page. I agree that professional emails should be just that. I use LOL sometimes when I email or Facebook message my mom or friends, but in other situations I always refrain from using abbreviations. I hope that doesn't become the norm, because it just seems so inappropriate.(Ironic, seeing as I'm part of the email/IM/text generation.) One of my pet peeves is when people abbreviate things that don't need to be shortened. I think words like "'rents" (for "parents") and "vacay" (for vacation) sound so stupid.
GLO--good for you for trying to hold on to the English writing world! Keep with it! It sounds like you are making communicating fun with your students.
I have fond memories of my h.s. English teacher and A.P. English got me 1 quarter earlier graduation from college (savings=$4,000).
I wouldn't know how to text if my life depended on it.
Off to baseball practice for my son (or OtBPfms).
I wouldn't know how to text if my life depended on it.
I was really bad at it before I got my iPhone. Now I'm just sort of bad at it. But seriously, trying to text on a Razr is torturous. I was at a conference in the fall and colleagues kept texting me and by the time I had laboriously typed a response I'd have received two more texts. I couldn't figure out how to capitalize or punctuate. It was pretty sad.
No way could I text, even with my reading glasses it's hard for me to read anything! I know I need to get to an eye doctor but I just keep putting it off. I think I'm up to the highest level of reading glasses that I can get from the drug store and it's still not enough! I can't see the numbers on my cell phone, if it weren't for the phone menu (phone book, phone directory, or whatever it's called on the phone) I'd be so lost. I really envy you young ones your 20/20 eyesight!
As far as the fake names, my daughter says she and her friends do that a lot, more just to have validation, confirmation, or support for their opinion, so they sign on so it looks like there are a lot of people who agree with them. If they are with each other at the time there is no need, but if they are doing it on their own, they comment as if they are each other, and they know they all agree. Mostly now they do it on the Casey Anthony sites (they really are against her).
it just could be the drugs talking here but I saw Guin's comment about the main picture so I had to come and see it and then I noticed the cat with "WTF?" and had a laugh because the topic of this discussion. I was a little loopy the other day when this discussion started and didn't notice the picture but I did tonight..As you can tell I'm a little slow to the party. I should be fine in a few days..just a set back but I'm fine.
Well I'm a doctoral student that is also a Prof's Assistant for Master's level courses. I have had to grade papers at the Master's level that use many of these acronyms! It's hysterical!
I get using it on phones cause some phones have a limit to the number of characters you can send per message but grad school papers! I fear for the future! LOL!<-- :D
PS - I can't sign in! :(
It's probably worth remembering that Television Without Pity (and thus, Gosselins Without Pity) is a play on the 1961 movie title (and hit song by the same title) "A Town Without Pity", where an entire town is motivated not so much by concern for justice for the victim, a young girl, but a thirst for vengence. Sound familiar?
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