wassup? brb pir, ttyl

AOL Instant Messenger gives online buddies a chance to chat using their own computer lingo.

By ALLISON HOLDER

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 8, 2001

Angelgirl56: Hey

Coolio555: What?!

Angelgirl56: n2m

Do you know what that means? If not, it is obvious you never talk on AOL Instant Messenger.

Instant Messenger is an online computer program provided by America Online for free. You can talk to all your "buddies" just like e-mail, except instantly! On e-mail you send one message at a time and wait for a reply. AIM tells you if your friends are online and allows you to see the message right on your screen in a special window as soon as it is sent to you.

A user registers a screen name she will use online to talk to her buddies. A screen name can be anything the user wants, as long as the name isn't already taken (AIM will tell you this). You make a list of your friends' screen names, and when they are online AIM will show you by placing their screen names on your buddy list window. Another advantage over e-mail is that you can instant message more than one person at a time. It is simple enough to register, but getting the hang of the computer lingo is something else!

Why is this foreign language used? Kids make up this lingo to abbreviate words so it takes less time to respond to a buddy. It's a type of shorthand that is almost universal. Three common abbreviations are: waz? (what's up?), n2m (not too much), g2g (got to go); see box below for a glossary of more terms.

Although there is a help button at the top of your Instant Message buddy directory, it won't give you any help decoding this computer lingo. Learning the language can be difficult for a first-time user.

"It's confusing because I couldn't understand what people were saying," says Kaity Lovering, 12, a seventh-grader at St. Raphael's Catholic School in St. Petersburg.

Okay, if your help button is useless, where do you get a clue? Your friends, of course! Most kids say they learned the special instant messaging lingo by talking to friends online.

"At first I didn't understand what (kids) were saying, because I didn't understand the (abbreviations) they were using. I would ask other kids when I didn't get it," says Madeline McCarthy, 13, an eighth-grader at St Raphael.

Once you get used to speaking the lingo, you can make up your own. St. Raphael seventh-grader Charlotte Carrington, 12, remembers messaging a friend about a Halloween horror night and Islands of Adventure, two extra-long phrases when you're trying to type fast. She devised "hhn" and "ioa" to use instead.

To help get a personalized abbreviation into circulation, 12-year-old seventh-grader Mitch Ryan says he would "e-mail it to people" so they would start using it.

To download the AIM program for free, go to www.aol.com, but be sure to ask your parents for permission first.

Now all you need is a screen name and a list of your buddies. g2g!

-- Allison Holder, 12, is in the seventh grade at St. Raphael's Catholic School in St. Petersburg.

What do u peeps know?

Here is a glossary of some common instant messenger abbreviations:

g2g -- got to go

ttyl -- talk to you later

n2m -- not too much

n2mjch -- not to much just chilling here

u -- you

h/o -- hold on

brb -- be right back

b -- be

waz? -- what's up?

wassup? -- what's up?

sup -- up

lol -- laugh out loud

peeps -- people

pir -- parents in room

w/ -- with

b/c -- because

j/k -- just kidding

j/p -- just playing

n/p -- no problem

thanx -- thanks

welkum -- you're welcome

4 -- for

n e -- any

s/n -- screen name

im -- instant message

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