According to official
statistics, almost half of the world's population (approximately 3.5 billion)
are internet users. Undoubtedly, the advent of the Internet gave birth to
social media and mobile devices that enable us communicate with our relatives
and peers anywhere around the world.
Communication with the
use of social media is now very less expensive because with just 10MB (which
costs #100 and sometimes given to you free of charge when you recharge your account
with at least #100), a person can share useful information to thousands of internet
users through any of the social media platforms (like Whatsapp, Facebook,Instagram
etc) and this has increased the popularity of social media, especially
among teenagers and youths.
Furthermore, the use of
social media has led to the birth of new languages and ways to communicate
over the internet. In order to avoid the stress of typing too many letters,
users of social media have devised a means of shortening their words by making
use of abbreviations and acronyms which are mostly understood by them. Some of
these acronyms and abbreviations have become so popular that we have ended up
incorporating them into our daily language, including languages other than
English.
Who hasn’t answered a
funny Whatsapp message with a LOL? You must be a learner if you haven't.
I’m sure you have used it
now and then, but do you know exactly what it and other popular acronyms mean?
LOL
It comes from the
initials of Laughing Out Loud.
This is one of the
acronyms we use the most, to indicate laughter or when we find something funny
or hilarious. Some of its variations are ROTFL (Rolling On The Floor Laughing) or
ROFLMAO, LMAO, LOLZ, LWKMD, LOOOOOOL (with extra oooooos for emphasis) etc.
Other frequently used
acronyms on social media are:
OMG!
These are the initials
of Oh My God. It is used a lot,
irrespective of people’s religious beliefs, to express surprise, boredom,
emotion etc.
SMH
These are initials of Shake My Head. It is used when someone
states something that is contrary to your opinion on a topic, probably after
series of explanations, to show that you kinda feeling pity for him/her due to
his/her lack of understanding.
It is also used to react
to a person's unruly behaviour.
Have You Seen: Some Nigerian Acronyms With Their Funny Meanings?
SRLY
This is an abbreviation
of the word seriously. It is synonymous with 'Are you sure?'.
It is used when you want to be sure of something, especially something new.
Maybe someone tells you something new and you wanna be sure whether the person
is actually serious about the news, you can use this.
GR8, L8, M8, L8R
If you see a strange word
made up of letters and an 8, have no fear. In lots of words containing the
sound /eɪt/ this syllable is usually replaced with an 8.
Examples
Mate = M8
Great = Gr8
Later = L8R
Late = L8
BRB
This stands for Be Right Back. Perhaps while chatting
you are called upon to attend to other issues, you use this acronym to tell the
person you are chatting with that the chat has not ended as you will be back in
a jiffy (probably when you are done with what you are doing) to continue the
chat.
BAE
Recently, BAE has become
popular as a synonym for girlfriend or boyfriend.
It comes from the initials for Before Anyone Else and
given to that special and important person in your life, usually your partner.
In Nigeria, BAE is the feminine
version of BOO. Whereas BAE is the synonym for girlfriend, BOO is the synonym
for boyfriend.
Have you listened the
song, 'after the reggae play the bluez?' If you have, do you remember the line,
'even your boo get a boo'? Lol!
These are but a few
examples of the huge amount of frequently used acronyms on social media and
forums where it’s not necessary to use language that is 100% perfect.
You can also add to the
list by using the comment box if you know of frequently used
acronyms on social media.
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