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Challenge 11: Internet Slang



So, the smiley face emoticon just celebrated its 25th birthday, and with the prevalence of text messaging and microblogging, online denizens are just looking to get their point across in as few keystrokes as possible. Especially things they communicate often. But with its mix of letters, numbers, abbreviations and acronyms, how is anyone supposed to make sense of chatspeak?

Well, to be honest, it takes practice. You get used to seeing something in conversation, and eventually, LOL (laugh out loud) becomes a part of your everyday online language. When you come across something you don't recognize, try looking it up at the Internet Slang Dictionary. There is a search box there on the front page for inquiries, but you can also browse the dictionary by first letter. While you're exploring the dictionary, don't be discouraged! You probably aren't going to see a lot of these very often (in fact, I'm sure you will probably never see "mgiwjsdchmw", which apparently stands "My girlfriend is watching Jeff so don't call her my wife"), and once you get used to the patterns sometimes you can look at something and figure out what it is on your own. (IMHO, context is your friend!) Wikipedia also has an awesome article on how Leetspeak works (also called L33tspeak, this often substitutes numbers and symbols for letters), as well as a list of commonly used emoticons to help when you get stuck on something.

Your Challenge: Explore the Internet slang dictionary, as well as the other links above. Are there any of these you use on a regular basis? Do you know anyone who does use any of these a lot?

Bonus Video: