You’re chatting with your friend about this super hot guy in school and suddenly, out of nowhere, your mom comes right behind you. ‘SOS’ you ping your friend to warn her about the possible danger! Students in schools and colleges sometimes use short forms and code words so that their parents or elders around them don’t understand what they’re talking about.
Says 17-year-old student Ananya G, “When we’re chatting online and someone pops up from behind suddenly, we say ‘SOS’ which means ‘someone over shoulder’. TTYL, which stands for ‘talk to you later’ is also pretty popular.”
Engineering student Neethi R., has come up with code words which she uses on Gtalk when someone is around her. But she won’t reveal them to us. “I do that to indicate to my friends that there are people around me and they need to be careful when they pinging me. It’s so helpful,” she laughs.
Ryan Jones, a 25-year-old American, who started a website revealing all the short forms that youngsters use has been getting hate mails from students and appreciation from parents! He lists out acronyms like aabf (as a best frien), atm (at the moment), m & d (mom and dad), pob (parent over back) as some of the short forms used by youngsters.
However, college student Prerna S feels she’s way over those days of using acronyms/code words. “It happens mostly with school kids. They probably use it when they chat online. I’ve been through that phase myself. When you have a phone which you can use for personal chats, why would you chat online in the open?” she quips.
But for many who don’t have the luxury of using a cellphone or have to make-do with common computers/laptops that are placed where everyone can see them, acronyms are a blessing.
Commerce student Mansi B. says, “When we’re talking about a guy and a parent is around or suddenly walks in, we change the ‘he’ to ‘she while chatting or talking. I guess that’s something that everyone does!”
So g2g now guys, cul8r! : )