Social Media abbreviations

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...

Common used abbreviations on the EW Forums

EW- ExpatWoman
DD- dear daughter
DS- dear son
LO- little one or loved one
DH- dear husband
OH- other half
MIL- mother in law
FIL- father in law
HTH- hope that helps
TIA- thanks in advance
IFYKWIM- if you know what I mean
IMO- in my opinion
IMHO- in my humble opinion
TMI- too much information
LOL- laugh out loud
TY- thank you
Other Common Abbreviations

AAMOF As a matter of fact
AFAICS As far as I can see
AISI As I see it
ASAP As soon as possible
AYPI And your point is?
BFFE Best friends forever
BFFN Best friend for now
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
fb Facebook
HC How cool
HLBD Happy late birthday
HRU How are you?
IA I agree
IAB In a bit
IMD In my dreams
IMHO In my humble opinion
J/K Just kidding
LMK Let me know
LOL Laugh(ing) out loud
MIA Missing in action
MTF More to follow
OOH Out of here
pls Please
RT Re-tweet (forward original text)
thx Thanks
TTYL Talk to you later
TY Thank you
TMI Too much information
WADR With all due respect
WDYT What do you think
XO Kiss and Hug
YVW You're very welcome
YW You’re welcome