Master Text Abbreviations in One Day

There is an entire dictionary of acronyms being used as Text Abbreviations when alphanumerically conversing. If you’re one of the many people that “just don’t get it,” this article will help you master digital shorthand all in one day.

As common as it is to use slang, text abbreviations have become the internet-based form of shortening words when communicating via text messages, instant messaging, and email. This SMS language became a feature during the rise of smartphone usage to simplify composing messages within the allotted character limits.

Internet-based communication is the most popular form of conversing nowadays and although text abbreviations were mostly used for mobile phone messaging, it has now become common to use when writing emails and letters.

Before smartphones were “a thing” cellular phones didn’t have the screen capacity to allow for long messages. When people were limited to send messages of 160 characters or less, they started to get creative and used text abbreviations to get the most out of their restricted space.

Having the ability to shorten words and phrases became second nature to cellphone users and by the time Millennials picked up on the lingo, the popularity rose to an all-time high and an entire dictionary of acronyms was born.

History of Text Abbreviations

Remember when Generation X thought it was so cool to have a beeper/pager? It was the last item to put on before leaving your house and if you were a teenager, you made sure to place it somewhere visible on your body. You wanted everyone to know you owned one and as soon as that device started beeping or vibrating, you instantly became a VIP. People were so excited to be paged and would quickly run to a public phone to call whoever was paging them back.

Over time, companies who made pagers became creative and what first started as a square black device, now came in different shapes, sizes, and colors. As the pager sizes increased, so did the screen space and you can bet that users became creative with what they can do with their limited characters allowance by developing pager code.

Pager codes were the original text abbreviations and became very popular amongst friends in the teenage demographic who started off with discovering that when turning specific numbers upside down on your pager, it formed a word. Some examples of these pager/beeper codes formed words such as:

07734 (Hello)

143 (I love you) – While this one isn’t one to be read upside down, you were to add the number of letters in each word to decode it.

121 (I need to talk to you) – This abbreviated beeper code was crafty because 1-2-1 means “we need to speak one-on-one.”

1134 2 09 (Go to hell)

911 (Emergency/Call me now)

14 (hi)

There were many more beeper codes developed over time and now anyone who owned a pager was able to use what came across to be the modern-day Morse code. This social habit of creating words and phrases out of numbers later translated into text abbreviations when cellphones hit the market.

Top 10 Text Abbreviations

WE HAVE ACTUAL LETTERS! That’s probably what ran across the minds of the first cellphone consumers because now instead of trying to decode numbers to figure out what words the sender was trying to send you, you were now able to send a limited amount of words.

Even though the first cellphone models were not the type of phones that people would use for texting, when the flip phones came around, texting started gaining popularity. Before the first smartphone was designed, people would use their dial pad to enter letters on their cellphones to form words. While this method was a bit carpal tunnel forward, the excitement of being able to send actual words spread like wildfire. But pressing numbers to get to the right letter apparently was too much of a hassle and so abbreviating words became a thing. While not all abbreviations are rated PG, below are the top 10 text abbreviations being used in messaging.

1. ROFL means Rolling on floor laughing.
2. STFU means Shut the *freak* up.
3. LMK means Let me know.
4. ILY means I love you.
5. YOLO means You only live once.
6. SMH means Shaking my head.
7. LMFAO means Laughing my freaking *a* off.
8. NVM means Never mind.
9. IKR means I know, right.
10. OFC means Of course.

Text Abbreviations Hit Social Media

With everyone being used to using text abbreviations to send messages with their mobile devices, it was only natural that this social lingo would carry over to social media. Twitter uses the “less is more” philosophy with its limited character space so people are forced to use acronyms for brevity. Though Facebook and Instagram which are two other social media platform giants, allow for more characters, using abbreviated words and phrases is a huge time saver so text abbreviations are still commonly used there too.

Most Popular Text Abbreviations

You may or may not be a “texter” but if you own a mobile device and have 1 or more social media profiles, the text abbreviations listed below may come in handy. Here are the most popular acronyms being used in today’s digital world.

We hope this history and guide of text abbreviations helps all the Baby Boomers and Generation X folks out there who find themselves often Googling acronyms to understand the messages they receive or see on social media. Being that SMS for business is also on the rise, it’s only wise that you become familiar with this modern-day language.