The rise of instant messaging made it so that people could get in touch with one another more or less instantly. This meant that typing out full words would become a bit of a chore, especially in the olden days when you would have to tap a key multiple times in order to get to the letter that you might have been looking for. This meant that people would frequently use abbreviations such as “ppl” instead of people and “lol” for laugh out loud.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that everyone might not be as familiar with text abbreviations. This can result in some embarrassing gaffes, such as the well known meme in which a mother says “LOL” after informing her child that their relative has died, thinking that it meant “Lots Of Love” instead of “Laughing Out Loud”.
Case24 created a list of the text abbreviations that get Googled for most often with all things having been considered and taken into account, and it turns out that the most confusing abbreviation for people happens to be SMH which got searched for almost 900,000 times. It stands for Shake My Head if you were wondering, but there have been other meanings popping up recently like So Much Hate which might be why there is a lot of confusion surrounding that type of terminology.
Oddly enough, the second most searched for text abbreviation was LMAO which stands for “Laughing My Ass Off”. This is a fairly commonly used abbreviation, but it seems that the older crowd that are not familiar with it would be searching for it in order to better communicate with members of the younger generation.
The thing about text based communication is that abbreviations have ended up becoming a really essential aspect of them. This has gone on to form a language in its own right, something that might confuse those that are not familiar with how the language works but would be instinctively caught on by those that talk on instant messaging platforms regularly.
There are applications for abbreviations in work contexts as well, such as the ubiquitous AFK which stands for “Away From Keyboard” and indicates that you are not available to do any work at present and will get right on it when you are home and can access your workstation.
H/T: PCMag.
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With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that everyone might not be as familiar with text abbreviations. This can result in some embarrassing gaffes, such as the well known meme in which a mother says “LOL” after informing her child that their relative has died, thinking that it meant “Lots Of Love” instead of “Laughing Out Loud”.
Case24 created a list of the text abbreviations that get Googled for most often with all things having been considered and taken into account, and it turns out that the most confusing abbreviation for people happens to be SMH which got searched for almost 900,000 times. It stands for Shake My Head if you were wondering, but there have been other meanings popping up recently like So Much Hate which might be why there is a lot of confusion surrounding that type of terminology.
Oddly enough, the second most searched for text abbreviation was LMAO which stands for “Laughing My Ass Off”. This is a fairly commonly used abbreviation, but it seems that the older crowd that are not familiar with it would be searching for it in order to better communicate with members of the younger generation.
The thing about text based communication is that abbreviations have ended up becoming a really essential aspect of them. This has gone on to form a language in its own right, something that might confuse those that are not familiar with how the language works but would be instinctively caught on by those that talk on instant messaging platforms regularly.
There are applications for abbreviations in work contexts as well, such as the ubiquitous AFK which stands for “Away From Keyboard” and indicates that you are not available to do any work at present and will get right on it when you are home and can access your workstation.
Read next: 1 In 4 Of Consumers Are Using Online Biometrics Authentication In Some Capacity