Instant Messaging: what is it all about?
At one time it was the exclusive domain of Internet mavens basking in the muted blue glow of their VGA computer monitors, but today online instant messaging is almost as popular as e-mail when it comes to online communication. Instant messaging first became a widespread Internet application in the mid-90s with the introduction of ICQ (“I Seek You”) and has since become a commonplace tool in the home or the office.
Instant messaging was born from a desire to use the Internet to communicate in real time with anyone, anywhere on in the Internet and it does this very effectively. For many, however, it would seem that the time spent typing and sending an instant message is simply too much time to spend between communications. As a result, a large collection of acronyms and abbreviations has been created as a sort of instant messaging shorthand. This is great for saving time, but as you may have experienced if you are a new instant messenger user chatting with a long time user with a fully developed vocabulary of Internet shorthand, trying to figure out what others are saying can be quite a chore. Some of the shorthand is fairly easy to decipher such as THX , but I have to confess that I was stumped the first time I saw the letters ROTFL as a response.
Fortunately, there are quite a few pages on the Internet such as http://familyinternet.about.com/od/sharingonline/a/acronyms.htm that can serve as a point of reference for new instant messenger users or for existing users who still end up running across some unknown messenger jargon. Simply search for “instant messenger abbreviations” or “instant messenger acronyms” in your favorite search engine and you will receive thousands of results. You can use Google’s search command “define:ROTFL” in the search filed, and the popular search engine will display it’s meaning. Also, at the bottom of this letter, we have included some shorthand that we found to be helpful or amusing.
If you have any questions about instant messaging or about the various instant messenger programs, please visit the help section of the GoBigWest homepage. In the setup section, there will be a page titled “Instant Messenger and Chat Clients” that displays information for a large number of popular instant messenger programs that are free to download and use.
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Sample Acronyms and Abbreviations
AFK - Away from keyboard
AFAIK – As far as I know
BCNU – Be seeing you
CUL8R – See you later
DQMOT – Don’t quote me on this
BRB - Be right back
EOM – End of message
FWIW – For what it’s worth
GMTA – Great minds think alike
HT – Hi there
IMHO – In my humble opinion
JTLYK – Just to let you know
K – Okay
LOL – Laugh out loud
NP – No problem
OIC – Oh, I see
POS – Parent over shoulder
ROTFL – Rolling on the floor laughing
SYS - See you soon
TIA – Thanks in advance
WFM – Works for me
YT? – You there?
BBL - Be back later
