Throughout history, mankind has developed communication methods which, as civilization progresses and evolves, change to adapt to new times and available knowledge.
This has been accentuated over the last 20 years, with the advent of digital communications and the birth of internet jargon, which started with the abbreviations writing even the first prototype emojis made with letters.
Next, we will take a tour through the history of internet slang, from its origins in the first mobile phones of the beginning of the century, and all his evolution as the digital highway got bigger and bigger until it reaches what it is today.
What is Internet slang and what are these idioms of the language for?
Internet slang is a set of idioms and abbreviations used in everyday language by those who are more versed in colloquial communication through digital media. While its existence is vastly verifiable, it is difficult to define the components of this jargon, due in large part to its rapid evolution, which goes hand in hand with technological advances in communication.
Initially, this jargon it was only used in some internet communication protocols, specifically in IRC (Internet Relay Chat) conversations. It is currently used by the general public for informal communication through instant messaging.
Causes of the birth of digital jargon Why are these expressions born?
Everything starts in the early 90’s, more specifically in 1992, with the SMS of the second generation of mobile networks, which had a limited number of characters, so people, to save space and avoid sending a second message, began to simplify expressions.
For example, the abbreviation “XQ” was used instead of “Why” or “D” instead of “of”, “NTP” instead of “don’t worry” and the like. Certain expressions were more used than others, so they were taking root in the culture of the users, and went viral to the point that they are used in almost all Spanish-speaking countries.
Emoticons or Emojis What is their function within the language of the Internet?
Emoticons, more popularly known as emojis, are images or pictograms made up of one or more characters, which are arranged in such a way that they represent facial expressions reflecting a certain state of mind. They began to be used in the early 90s, shortly after the appearance of the first text messages, and back then letters and punctuation marks were used to form emoticons.
Nowadays, character emoticons are no longer used, having been replaced by emojis which are predesigned color icons that, similarly, represent emotions through facial expressions.
Its main function in internet communication is to point out the emotions reflected in the conversation., reflecting the thoughts and emotions of the issuer. They have a very varied range of expressions, to the point that it encompasses object diversity, postcards and gender differentiation for emojis, among many other characteristics.
Internet Slang The art of simplifying words to write faster!
Is one of the most common practices used in informal conversations on the internet worldwide. The ashortbreviations and simplification of words allow those who use it to increase the speed of writing their messages.
Words that are abbreviated in this way are made up of their initials, contractions and even numbers that, when pronounced, have a phonetic similar to the word. For this reason, contractions and abbreviations vary greatly from language to language, and they even have certain variations from one country to another, regardless of whether they speak the same language.
List of the most used expressions in Internet slang and their meaning
Nowadays, English is the most commonly used language in most international chat forums, so abbreviations and contractions are used based on this language.
Among the most used expressions we can mention the following:
- ASL: (or in Spanish ESL): abbreviation for age, sex, and location.
- BBL: “Be back later” or “I’ll be back later”.
- BRB: “Be right back” or “I’m back.”
- CYA / CU: “See you around” / “See you”
- GJ: “Good job”, translation of “good job”
- GL: “Good luck (” Good luck “)
- GTG / G2G: “Got to go” translated as “I have to go.” The use of the number 2 in English is highlighted due to its phonetics similar to the article “to”
- IMHO: “In My Humble Opinion” (“In my humble opinion”)
- L8R / CUL8R: ”Later” / “See you later”. The number 8 in English is used as an abbreviation in this case due to its phonetics “Éit”, similar to that used to pronounce “Later”
- LOL: “lots of laughter”. It does not have a Spanish translation, but it is a globally accepted term on the internet.
- NP: “no problem” (“No problem”).
- NVM: “nevermind” (“It doesn’t matter”)
- SDR: “Sweet dreams” (“Sweet dreams”)
- ASAP: “As soon as possible” (“As soon as possible”)
Although of the predominance of English in internet conversations, the Spanish language has your own contractions and abbreviations used to improve the speed of communication in informal chat rooms, both private and group.
Among these contractions, we have the following:
- BN: for “good”.
- BECAUSE: for “however”.
- NPS: abbreviation for “It can’t be”
- NTP: for “Don’t worry”
- MD: “Direct message”, widely used in networks such as Twitter.
- PA: contraction of “Para”
Evolution of Digital Jargon How has it changed over the years?
The internet slang started in 1992, with the sending of text messages in the first second generation mobile phones. For this moment, character input was limited to approximately 160 characters, and exceeding that limit was the equivalent of sending an additional text message.
Because in those days the plans were limited and expensive, the use of contractions and abbreviations was widely adopted to reduce the introduction of characters in text messages, in order to avoid sending the second message. In 1999, in Japan, the first graphic emojis were created by the telephone company NTT Docomo. It was a pack of 176 simple emojis made on a 12×12 pixel grid.
These designs were quickly adapted by various telephone companies, giving birth to the first graphic emojis:
The arrival of the internet and Smartphones
The use of contractions and abbreviations became common for much of the 1990s until the internet became globally accessible with the creation of Google in 1998, bringing the customs of abbreviated language to the first chat forums. With the arrival of the first Smartphones in 2007 and 2008, the need to use abbreviations and contractions returned to texting. However the arrival of WhatsApp in 2010 removed that character limitation and therefore the need for abbreviations.
The last decade
During the 2010s, communication through the Internet evolved in very different ways as forums, trends and events occurred that went viral and added a new expression to the growing lexicon used by Internet users. But nevertheless, the use of abbreviations in most chat forums was maintained, and evolved with new contractions derived from online games, and the creation of the first internet memes.
The emergence of new communities, social networks and online video games have contributed to the creation of new terms that have become common in chat forums and social networks. Nowadays, we can find a countless amount of terms and idioms in daily communications through the internet. Ranging from complete sentences to a single letter with enormous meaning.