How to Text 101

I remember when my son started school, the big new thing at the time was to have the kids phonetically spell, supposedly to allow their creative juices to flow and not be stopped by spelling errors. They were graded on their creative juices or content of their paper. Well, I had the hardest time with him teaching him to spell properly. Once a word is spelt one way, it can ingrain itself into the brain that way and kids will always spell it that way. But reading those early writings was alienspeak. I would always dodge reading them by saying I wanted them to read it which they always seemed to be able to do. I would later pick up that paper and try and read it again and never see what they said they wrote. It was alienspeak.

I never thought I would have that happen again until cell phones came along. Learning a cell phone to me was alien. One of my office girls teaches me new things on it at least once a week. I supposed I could just read the book it came with but I didn't want to ever admit I was the only one who ever read one. I should check it out though because it probably has a racy short story in there that no one ever knows because no one has ever read it. If you have read one, please admit it here. I won't tell anyone.

Now add texting to that cell phone. Definite alienspeak and long and complicated. I mean just call me already. It's way faster and I don't have to decipher what you just said.

Wikipedia definition of text messaging or texting:

the common term for the sending of "short" (160 characters or fewer, including spaces) text messages from mobile phones using the Short Message Service (SMS).The term "text messaging" or "text" is widely used in the Philippines, United States and United Kingdom while "SMS" is more used in Singapore and most other Asian countries.

Now who here over the age of 40 understood that? Now who here over the age of 40 can text and use the acronyms AND see the letters on the itty bitty cell phone pad AND reply using 60 characters in under 10 minutes? Not me. But I think we are going to have to otherwise we will be really showing our age. These young ones are wiping our rears with the texting and if we want to have a clue to what they are saying we better learn.


Here are some commonly used texting acronyms:

ngl: Not Gonna Lie
2: To or Too
4: For
4evr: Forever
c: See
cus: Because
cuz: Because or Cousin
ne1: Anyone
ez: Easy
b4: Before
2nite: Tonight
brb: Be Right Back
gtg or g2g: Got To Go
ttyl: Talk To You Later
cyl: See you Later
btw: By The Way
bbl: Be Back Later
idk: I Don't Know
idc: I Don't Care
lol: Laugh(ing) Out Loud or Lots Of Laughs
rofl: Rolls (or Rolling) On Floor Laugh(ing)
lq2ms: Laugh(ing) Quietly To Myself
omg: Oh My God (or Gosh)
lmao: Laugh(ing) My Ass Off
lylas: Love You Like A Sister
lylab: Love You Like A Brother
k or kk: Okay
jk: Just Kidding
jp: Just Playing
jw: Just Wondering
143 or <3: I Love You
luv: Love
ily: I Love You
w/e: Whatever
ttly: Totally
ttfn: Ta Ta For Now
w8: Wait
h8: Hate
l8: Late
l8r: Later
ty: Thank You
thnks, thnx, or thx: Thanks
r: Are
u: You
y: Why
ppl: People
4nd: Friend
qt: Cutie
zzz: Sleeping, Bored, Tired
HHRT: Hit Hard Right Through
IMO: In My Opinion
BFF: Best Friend Forever
FYI: For Your Information
kwim: Know What I Mean?
n: and
afk: Away From Keyboard
bak: Back At Keyboard
wdymbt: What Do You Mean By That

So if I sent you a text message stating the following, what did I say and how would you answer me?
hi how r u jw u free 2nite A3 POOT BYOB LMK k?

Hint: here are a couple of websites I came upon to help me decipher:
http://www.teenchatdecoder.com/parental-lookup/teenchat-a.html
http://www.netlingo.com/emailsh.cfm