Internet gobbledygook
What’s the use of peeping into your child’s phone to read their internet chats or text messages if the only word that you can actually make sense of is “Hi”? But just in case you’re wondering: If you catch them typing a peculiar term that looks like ‘POS’ whilst peeping, it is short for Parent Over Shoulder.
When the terms ‘LMIRL’, ‘ASL’, ‘YOLO’, ‘POS’, ‘torrenting’ and ‘trolling’ pop up on their mobile phone screens, what comes to mind? Absolute gibberish you might say. But we assure you, they are not products of your child’s drunk texting or anything of that sort. They are however, terms that you ought to know.
Learn Internet slang
Yes we all think Internet slang is stupid. We refuse to succumb to the degeneration of the historically and culturally fortified written word that is the English language. We refuse to pick up Singlish, Singnese and most of all, learn Internet slang only to participate in its defilement.
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And while you remain stubbornly backdated, your children may meanwhile be texting depraved strangers lurking on the other side of their mobile phones. So parents, no matter how fed up you are with these abbreviations and acronyms, it’s best to learn Internet slang for the sake of your children.
Clueless parents
According to a Daily Mail article, research done by knowthenet.org.uk has shown that mothers and fathers are clueless about how their children talk on the Internet. They did a study to find out how much parents knew about Internet slang, and revealed the extent of disparity between the younger generation and their parents’.
It appeared, only 8 per cent of parents knew that ‘LMIRL’ meant Let’s Meet in Real Life, a phrase used by strangers to encourage a meet up. Only one in three parents of 10 to 18 year olds were able to identify popular terms like ‘LMIRL’, ‘frape’, ‘ASL’, ‘YOLO’ and ‘POS’.
The study also revealed that mothers have a better clue of Internet slang as compared to fathers. About 32 per cent of mothers could identify the meaning of the correct terms while fathers stood at 29 per cent.
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And since 80 per cent of teenagers netspeak, it is really advisable that parents learn Internet slang in order to know what is going on with their child’s life and protect them from bad people out there.
Knowthenet.org.uk came up with a test to assess their own understanding of Internet slang and learn more about popular netspeak terms. Take the test here.
Learn Internet slang, 10 popular terms
- LOL is not Lots of Love, it’s an acronym for Laugh Out Loud. So the next time someone passes away, please refrain from sending an LOL text.
- TTYL stands for Talk To You Later. It comes in other forms like TTYL, TTYS (soon) TTYtmr (tomorrow)
- BRB is short for Be Right Back
- ASL or A/S/L stands for Age, Sex, Location and is used to ask the generic questions, what is your age, sex (or gender) and where you live.
- 403 represents Access is Denied, which originated from the error page you come across on the Internet.
- YOLO is the acronym for You Only Live Once, usually accompanied with a rock ‘n roll hand gesture
- Torrenting means transferring or downloading files illegally online
- Trolling means posting offensive remarks online to provoke a response
- Frape means the act of raping someone’s Facebook profile when they left it logged on
- FML is short for F**k My Life
How many slang word out of the list above did you know? We’d love to hear your feedback! Check out Ellen’s own slang for the older generation (just for laughs)