The Chat Room Brouhaha

By Ken Adejumoh

The advent of the various social media networks has helped in transforming the world to a truly global village. A lot of new words have been invented over time to make communication a stress free process. These words/phrases are abbreviations from already existing words, written as a form of modern short hand. They are used in the chat rooms because they are easy to type and they save time.

There are conventional abbreviations used for terminologies and titles in different professional fields like Dr., Engr., 0₃, H₂0, Mr. and a host of others.  All these conventional abbreviations communicate educative terms. But the recent development of different abbreviations to communicate via the social media is alarming as some of them beat my imagination.

As advantageous the words and phrases are, so  are the negative effects of these words on users especially students. It has affected their writing skills, level of critical reasoning and the way they communicate.

The short words are coded communication terms among youths, which makes typing of long sentences easy and fast via hand help devices, Laptops and PCs.

This has been shown to affect communication skills of people when they want to address a large gathering, during interviews especially written and many more.

The constant use of these news words both in writing and verbal communications is gradually creeping into the school system as they have become a common sight on students’ assignments and other forms of writing in the school. This is very alarming as teachers/lecturers are getting worried of the situation.

As creative as this development is, some of the words are totally out of place and needs to be tried and convicted so as to get them off our informal communication system. Some of such words are “sowie” from the word sorry, “fenks” from thanks, “kk or owkay” from ok or okay.

I have paused to ask myself a couple of times how sowie could connect with sorry and also how fenks could relate to thanks? I guess you are probably asking yourself the same questions.

Some of these words/acronyms/phrases and words are:

?4U                        I have a question for you

^^                          Read line above

121                        one-to-one

<3, Lv                    love

2                            To

2mrw                     Tomorrow

B3                          Battery

AFK                      Away from keyboard

4                            For

AKA                     Also known as

ZZZ                       tired/bored

WRE                     were are you

G2G                      Good 2 Go

LOL                      Laugh Out Loud

LMAO                  Laughing My Ass Out

Sup/zup/xup          What’s up

BFF                      Best friend(s) forever

CIIW                    Correct me if I’m wrong               

CMB                    Call me back

BTW                    By the way

Gr8                      Great

GG                       Gotta go

BBS                     Be back soon

GL                       Goodluck

LMAOL              Laughing my ass out loud

ROFL                  Rolling on the floor laughing

PM                      Prrivate message

Plz/pls                  Please

Hw re u                How are you

Hhhhhh                Very funny

DIY                     Do it yourself

IK                       I know

Cuz/cos               Because

CWYL                Chat with you later

DC                      Disconnected

FAQ                   Frequently asked questions

Ic                        I see

IMHO                In my humble opinion

RUOK                Are you ok

TGIF                  Thank Gog it’s Friday

FYEO                 For your eyes only

FYI                     For your imagination

F2F                     Face-to-face

FB                      Facebook

GB                     Goodbye

TTFN                 Tat a for you

THX or thnx        Thanks

SYL                    See you later

XO                      Hugs and kisses/love

U@                     You too

Ur                        Your/you’re

W/o                     Without

W/                       With

IM                       Instant message

IOU                     I owe you           

OIC                    Oh, I see

P2P                     Person-to-person

Mins                    Minutes

In a mo                In a moment

IOW                    In other words

J/K                       Just kidding

LOL                     Laughing out loud

M/F                     Male and female

OTW                   On the way

MSM                   Message

NV                       Never mind

AKA                    Also known as

ASAP                  As soon as possible

BRB                     Be right back

BBL                     Be back later

AYT                    Are you there

IDK                     I don’t know

A/S/L                   Age/sex/location

B2W                    Back to work

TTYL                   Talk to you later

L8r                       Later

TYT                     Take you time

Ur                        Your

N                          And

Wat                      What

Sud                      Should

Tks                       Thanks

Wia                      Where

Fnx                       Thanks

Neva                     Never

Wiv                       With

Nufting                   Nothing

Hi                          Ai

Vlog                      A video blog

HBD                     Happy birthday

HML                    Happy married life

HBDLLAP           Happy birthday long life and prosperity

GF/BF                  Girl friend/boyfriend

Gd a.m                  Good morning

Gd p.m                  Good afternoon

RSS                       Really simple syndication

DM                        Direct Message

RT                         Retweet

MT                        Modify tweet

The adverse effect of this trend is that writing culture in our society is diminishing by the day. Youths are so addicted to the usage of these words now that they no longer have the patience to settle down and write meaningful and constructive sentences.

The high rate of mass failure in examinations like WAEC, NECO, UTME and others can be attributed to the usage of these words. This is because students are no longer cautious of formal writing as they have become addicted to these words.

Low performance and productivity of our graduates will continue to increase if this communication menace is not checked promptly.