My teen was typing messages furiously on his mobile and (curious Mom) tried to pry.
“Let’s chat tomorrow 121.”
“Sure! Wen?”
“ALAP.”
“PAW…B4N.”
“K.”
I hovered over his shoulder, pretending to fold clothes, while trying to take a sneak peek into the mobile screen. But all these extremely cryptic conversations left me none the wiser.
“OK…out with it. Why all this secrecy? What is this code language you are using?” I demanded.
“Mom, chill! This is no code…..this is the in thing. Everyone uses abbreviated phrases while texting.”
“Really? Then pray do expand 121, ALAP, PAW, and B4N?”
“’One-to-one, As Late As Possible’, ‘Parents are Watching’ and ‘Bye For Now’,” he replied glumly.
All I could say was, “Oh!”
“Mom, this is how us, the generation next, communicates. Get it?”
Yeah, sure, I got it. In no uncertain terms was I being told that (a) I belonged to generation past, and (b) this lingo was for the GenX.
I went online to do some research. I found that the popularity of this lingo has spread like a raging fire among the young and they had innumerable abbreviations like these at the tip of their fingers to speed up their texting conversations. So much so, that there are competitions for writing novels, limericks and poems in SMS lingo!
So, fellow-sufferers (read parents), it’s time we update ourselves on the latest lingo trends so that we can amaze our kids with our up-to-dateness and versatility.(It goes without saying that this will also allow us to keep a tab on their communications).
Some other sites where you can pick up more such phrasal abbreviations:
http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/textmessageabbreviations.asp
http://www.netlingo.com/news/Texting_101.pdf
Not only will it be fun to converse with the kids in a language they like and understand but children would also be proud of their cool parents, whether they admit it or not.
Tags: Abbreviation, SMS Lingo
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