Your guide to navigating the internet and conversing in 2021 online!
Since I started working with the creative and digital expert team at Creative Little Soul, I’ve had to get myself up to speed with all the current online lingo. Seriously, online communication changes all the time, and to stay on top of it all, you are no longer required to keep your ear to the ground, but instead, it’s time to keep your eyes on the screen.
In this article, I’m going to look at these three key areas of online communication:
Chat language
Commonly used words on the internet
Pandemic talk
These three key areas will hopefully provide some of the tools you will need to ‘talk the talk’ and ‘walk the walk’ when online.
If you’re like me, and struggle to remember your social media logins, let alone keeping up to date with the current online language, I hope this article will be of assistance… You never know, it might even let you in on some acronyms that people have sent to you in a text message so you can finally know what they were talking about.
What is Chat Language?
Chat language is the use of a wide range of abbreviations and emojis when talking online.
I assumed that these abbreviations were born from online chatroom’s, but when I read an article by Simon Horobin who revealed that ‘OMG’ was used by a septuagenarian naval hero, admiral of the fleet Lord Fisher, in 1917, it confirmed to me that I really had to get up to date with the talk of the digital natives.
Chat language is also referred to as ‘Internet Slang, Cyberslang, Netspeak, Digi Speak or Chat Speak’. Essentially, any time you’re talking to someone online or through messaging, there will be some form of abbreviated language being used.
Why?
Simply because it’s easier and faster… Why else!
When doing the research for this post, I was looking forward to knowing just how many words were in my own chat language repertoire. As it turns out, it was hardly something to brag about!
LOL | Laugh Out Loud or Lots of LOVE |
BFF | Best Friend Forever |
BRB | Be Right Back |
ATM | At The Moment |
B4 | Before |
Yep! My chat language vocabulary is embarrassing. Fortunately, I could ask my kids for help. Through their fits of laughter, the list grew to four times the amount.
LMAO | Laughing My Arse Off |
AFK | Away From Keyboard |
TTYL | Talk To You Later |
AF | As F**k |
STFU | Shut The F**k Up |
IDK | I Don’t Know |
IDC | I Don’t Care |
NP | No Problem |
SYL | See You Later |
TBH | To Be Honest |
KK | Okay |
TY or THX | Thank You or Thanks |
UR | You Are or Your |
G2G | Got To Go |
JK | Joking |
IRL | In Real Life |
LMK | Let Me Know |
IKR | I Know Right |
HMU | Hit Me Up |
PERF | Perfect |
SMH | Shaking My Head |
There are so many more, but this list should help you to get the gist.
Commonly used words on the internet
Words and phrases are literally born on the internet…overnight. Through social media platforms like YouTube, TicToc and Twitter it’s getting easier and easier for words and sayings to gain momentum and quickly become known across the globe.
Some current words of the net are:
N00b – Newbie to a game, or any platform really
Yeet – Word for throwing something
Don’t be a ‘Karen’ (apologies to all the Karen’s out there. I didn’t start this!): “Karen” refers to someone who treats others in an entitled and condescending manner – going out of their way to complain about the smallest, most unimportant things.
The crazy thing is, that’s just the words side. Don’t forget there is also the crazy world of emojis! Did you know, there are currently 3521 emojis in the Unicode standard!
There is an emoji for every occasion, and sometimes they are all you need to get a message across.
Pandemic Talk
Thanks to the global pandemic, we all now have new words in our vocabularies…Sure many of these words aren’t new, but the pandemic has rebranded, created and re-introduced vocabulary to conversation in a way never really seen before.
Let’s take a look at some pandemic lingo!
Rona – Short for Corona aka Covid-19
Essential – Pre-pandemic life, I think I only used this word when I was talking about vitamins, now ‘essential’ features in just about every aspect of daily life: essential shopping, essential work, essential travel.
Social distance – Before 2020, I don’t think I ever worried about keeping 1.5mts from anyone!
Lock-down – I think this will be a word that many of us will be happy to never have to say or hear again!
Epidemiologist – Honestly, I didn’t even know this was a job before the pandemic. Now I hang onto their every word. I love it when members of a News team cross to the Epidemiologist of the day. They speak so calmly and with so much clarity.
When I spoke to Chrissy about keeping up with online language, she explained that “It’s not only important for yourself, but it’s vital when talking to your customers and clients. From a marketing perspective, it’s really important to stay up to speed with the current online language and to engage with customers in the most effective, shortest way possible because FML ain’t nobody got time for long posts!”
I might add that Chrissy also speaks and says “LOL” often and is the Queen of chat talk in our office; proving she’s got her finger on the pulse and knows what’s up.
I hope this article has been of some assistance and will continue to be a reference in the future. If you need further guidance or information on the latest online buzz words or how to communicate effectively with your target market, please reach and slide into our DM’s!!