More and more of us, become more and more adept with, more and more social media options all the time! The increase in speed of communication has been nothing short of a revolution over the past couple of decades.
Do people even write letters anymore?! The fax machine I relied on so heavily, whizzing news back home to family when I first moved to Dubai 13 years ago, is now obsolete. And I’m now in danger of a repetitive strain injury from my Blackberry affliction; rarely out of sight. Responding to emails or sms; it’s all immediate – dexterous thumbs a-blur.
Facebook, first embraced by the young, quickly followed by the rest of the world, was never about perfectly grammatical phraseology. English teachers despair... (but keep their FB pages updates).
The forum phenomena grew at the same time and those who regular post pick up shorthand tips which leave casual observers a little abused as to what they’re talking about. But maybe that’s part of the appeal; to stand apart as the knowing ‘in crowd’. At this point I’m tempted to invent RMETTC (roll my eyes to the ceiling).
The popularity of Twitter, with its 140 character limit, has led to even greater use of TLAs (three letter acronyms) and abbreviations. And if you’re doing all this in a second language, as many are, it must be all the more confusing. Here are a few common, and less common, ones that you may have seen in use and didn’t like to ask. We’d still recommend you use sparingly if you want to be understood. And yes we know there are rude ones too but that would be TMI...
143 I love you
2U2 To you too
A3 Anyplace, anywhere, anytime
AAMOF As a matter of fact
AFAICS As far as I can see
AFAYC As far as you're concerned
agl Angel
AISI As I see it
ANFSCD And now for something completely different
ASAP As soon as possible
AYPI And your point is?
BFFE Best friends forever
BFFN Best friend for now
biffles Best friends for life
BTW By the way
C4N Ciao for now
CRTLA Can't remember the three letter acronym
CU2MR See you tomorrow
CYFB Check your Facebook
D/C Don't care
DYD Don't you dare
e1 Everyone
f9 Fine
fb Facebook
FTF Face to Face
FTTB For the time
G9 Genius
GUFN Grounded until further notice
gz Congratulations
h8t Hate
HC How cool
HLBD Happy late birthday
HOPE Have Only Positive Expectations
HPDC Happy People Don't Complain
HRU How are you?
HWU Hey, what's up?
IA I agree
IAB In a bit
IMD In my dreams
IMHO In my humble opinion
J/K Just kidding
LFTD Laugh for the day
lil Little
LLPOF Liar liar pants on fire
LMK Let me know
LOL Laugh(ing) out loud
MIA Missing in action
MTF More to follow
NB Not bad
nvm Nevermind
OBO Or best offer
OH Overheard
OOH Out of here
PDH Pretty darn hot
pls Please
POTB Pat on the back
Rly Really
RT Re-tweet (forward original text)
SAT Sorry about that
SMF So much fun
thx Thanks
TTYL Talk to you later
TY Thank you
TMG That's my girl
TMI Too much information
U2U Up to you
Ul Unlucky
WADR With all due respect
WDYT What do you think
WL Whatta loser
xfer Transfer
XO Kiss and Hug
YDI You deserve it
YVW You're very welcome
YW You’re welcome