Research show that the average child gets their first mobile phone at the age of ten. On average, everyone on the globe above the age of nine is texting or writing in some form or fashion. Shorthand writing has become a thing of the present and we need to keep up with what all the acronyms and abbreviations mean that appear on our screens on a daily basis.  A series of letters written in a specific order and sometimes combined with characters, such as exclamation marks or dollar signs, now form part of a new language that people use to communicate with.

Keeping Track

NetLingo has a global tracking tool that, monitors the modern language that is used in IMing, SMSing, smartphones, websites, games, newsgroup postings, in chat rooms, on blogs, or on social media and creates a comprehensive list of acronyms and abbreviations. You will never again open a page or text and be left in the lurch about the meaning of the words on the screen. 

Before you think that you might not need this listing, consider that the acronyms and abbreviations used today stretch further than the mere brb (be right back) and lol (laugh out loud). Acronyms today include such phrases as 02 (Your (or my) two cents worth, also seen as m.02), 99 (Parent is no longer watching) or even 511 (Too much information). 

To the average person, these simply look like numerical values that make no sense at all when strung together in a mish mash of words to create some form of a sentence.  Much like the British cockney dialect, acronyms and abbreviations have become a way of communicating with each other in a dialect that makes no sense to the person that is not versed in it. Allowing people to exchange stories, ideas, opinions and facts in plain sight, yet still have it kept secret. 

Common Errors & Confusions 

Of course, not every use of these letters and symbols are as ‘ominous’ as all that.  Your computer speaks to you, every day by use of this language as well, from when you play real money pokies to checking the weather. For example, an Error 404 means that your computer cannot find the file that are wanting to open. An Error 505 means that the server cannot handle the http that is requested. 

In fact, more commonly known acronyms and abbreviations have been in use for longer that than just the modern age of technology. AWOL has been used by companies for a very long time and refers to someone who is absent from work without leave. 

It is simply that acronyms and abbreviations, have due to technology, become so bizarre that we often have no idea what we are looking at when staring at the screen. And there is no way of figuring it out without the help of some form of dictionary.

With NetLingo, you will never have to be confused about this again.