The Language of Social Media

Apple news delivered a rather humorous story this morning involving the president and a tweet in which he was boasting about his writing ability. The only problem was, his tweet contained a spelling error. The folks at Merriam-Webster, those purveyors of fine lexicons, took the opportunity to point out the subtle difference between pour over and pore over as well as poke fun at the Commander in Chief’s hair stylings.

There doesn’t seem to be any shortage of social media related stories in the news these days, which is fortunate for the sake of providing ample fodder for keeping up this blog over the next several weeks. This story got me thinking about how our language has changed as a result of social media tools like Twitter.

I don’t know about anyone else, but when I first started to explore the vast ecosystem of Web 2.0 and social media, I found myself at a disadvantage both technically and linguistically. Not only was I confounded by the mechanics of joining in the conversation, unable to decipher the variety of icons representing various actions, but I couldn’t always understand what was being said. A lot of posts I was reading contained acronyms and abbreviations that I’d never encountered before.

Application imposed restrictions, like Twitter’s original 140 character limitation, have prompted language shortcuts out of necessity but the instantaneous nature of social media communications has perpetuated them. Our conversations take place on a global stage with thousands of potential participants so the pace of the conversation can be staggering. Using acronyms and abbreviations are a practical way to keep up and not get left behind.

I came across several resources to help decode this new language. This blog post had a decent collection of terms to describe both social media marketing as well as chat terminology with helpful examples in context. A few of my favorites:

ELI5 – Explain like I’m 5 (years old)
IANAD – I am not a doctor
ICYMI – In case you missed it
YMMV – Your mileage may vary

All Acronyms claims to have 590 acronyms and abbreviations related to social media.  Interestingly, the website was developed and privately used by a group of acronym enthusiasts and university students until 2005, when the database was opened to the public. The site has more than 3,000,000 published entries and receives around 50 suggestions for new entries from visitors every day.

Finally, NetLingo serves as a digital reference guide for the terminology surrounding technology and the Internet and claims to have the largest list of text and chat acronyms. I didn’t try and count them all, but the list is quite extensive.

But this new language doesn’t stop with acronyms and abbreviations, it also includes things like smileys and emojis and short moving images called GIFs. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I wonder how many a GIF is worth? These clips are able to instantly convey a wide range of emotions and are often taken from pop culture references, which can make them a bit confusing if you are unfamiliar with the source.

So what are your thoughts on this new language? If you have a favorite acronym or GIF feel free to share it in the comments. And BTW, Happy 4th of July! =):-)