By Shea Saladee
courtesy Momaha.com
If your teen has a smartphone, there’s a good chance they’re familiar with a list of acronyms, abbreviations and short-hand to they’re incorporating into their messages.
As an educator of teens and young adults, I hear some of this verbiage being used in the classroom. As a parent of tweens, I also feel like it’s important to understand how technology is being utilized so I can best prepare myself and them. After all, some are harmless, but some could be potentially risky or downright dangerous.
Here’s a list of texting acronyms and abbreviations parents should be familiar with. The list was curated from my own knowledge as well as information from articles on CNN, McAfee, Yahoo and USAToday.
1. 9 or CD9: Parents are nearby
2. 99: Parents are gone
3. 143: I love you
4. 182: I hate you
5. 1174: Party meeting place
6. 53X: Sex
7. 2DAY: Today
8. 4EAE: For ever and ever
9. ADN: Any day now
10. ADR: What’s your address
11. AFAIK: As far as I know
12. AFK: Away from keyboard
13. ASL: Age/sex/location
14. ATM: At the moment
15. CU46: See you for sex
16. DOC: Drug of choice
17. F2F or FTF: Face to face
18. FWB: Friends with benefits
19. GNOC: Get naked on camera
20. GYPO: Get your pants off
21. HMU: Hit me up
22. IMO: In my opinion
23. IRL: In real life
24. IWSN: I want sex now
25. LH6: Let’s have sex
26. KMS/KYS: Kill myself, kill yourself
27. KPC: Keeping parents clueless
28. LMIRL: Let’s meet in real life
29. LMK: Let me know
30. MOS/POS: Mom over shoulder, parent over shoulder
31. NM: Never mind
32. NMU: Not much, you?
33. PIR: Parent in room
34. QQ: Crying
35. TBH: To be honest
36. WTTP: Want to trade pictures?
37. WYRN: What’s your real name?
It’s also important to note that, as with technology, the lingo is always changing and evolving. Emojis now have specific meanings as well, particularly symbols such as eggplant, peach, cherries and water drops (we’ll let you figure those out).
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Shea Saladee lives in Papillion with her husband, Brent, and their three children. She works as an instructor at the University of Nebraska Omaha.
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