A guide to GWI

Published Dec 3, 2012

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London - You may think that you are “down with the kidz”, but how much text-speak do you really know?

If you’ve only even got as far as OMG (oh my God) and LOL (laugh out loud) then you need to GWI (get with it.)

Author Danah Boyd has compiled a list of the most commonly used terms for parents wanting to translate their beloved children’s baffling texts.

These include:

* JK (just kidding)

* FOMO (fear of missing out – in relation to party hopping)

* DK (I don’t know)

* LN (last night).

To the simple question WRUD? (what are you doing?), teenage text speak provides an array of replies, such as FB (on Facebook), EAK (eating at the keyboard) and NMJCU? (nothing much, just chilling, you?).

Some involve numbers – 2L8 (too late) and 143 (I love you – taken from the numbers of letters in each word).

Many abbreviations deter a correspondent from writing anything too incriminating.

POS is “parent over shoulder”, CWYL is “chat with you later” and “5” means “wait a few minutes, a parent is in the room”.

Boyd, who believes that children use this secret code as a way to introduce some freedom from their parents in their lives likens using this lingo to a 21st-century equivalent of a “Keep Out” sign on the bedroom door. – Daily Mail

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