One afternoon I’m sitting at my laptop and a new message pops into my inbox. It’s from co-worker, so like any good employee I read said email right away. All I see at first is “LOL.” I scroll down to reveal their e-signature and then a string of email back and forth between them and a client. After reading this string of email I failed to see what was so funny. What was this “LOL” all about? Maybe I missed an email? Maybe I missed a meeting? I was so sure that there was nothing funny in any of the emails, that I wasn’t afraid to question what was going on. In mere seconds my co-workers translation came back via their trustee Blackberry… LOL = Lots Of Love. In hindsight it makes perfect sense.

Communication has moved almost completely into the realm of electronic format. We email instead of writing a letter by hand. We send text messages or “text” instead of making an actual phone call. And when email becomes too cumbersome, we send an instant message or “IM.” Not only are we sending more communications, but also our communications are becoming shorter, sweeter and hopefully more concise. We abbreviate sentences, phrases, and even use emotions when typing these quick communications. This new language however is becoming more convoluted and more difficult to understand if you aren’t constantly staying in the know.

To this particular co-worker “LOL” means “Lots of Love.” To most others it means “Laugh Out Loud.” So to keep any further miscommunication from happening internally or externally we’ve created a small dictionary of basic IM/Text acronyms and just for fun an emoticon (emotional icons) translator as well.

TEXT/IM:

LOL – Laugh Out Loud
ROTFL – Roll On The Floor Laughing
LMAO – Laugh My A** Off
TTFN – Ta-Ta For Now
TTYL – Talk To You Later
JK – Just Kidding
GF – Girl Friend
BF – Boy Friend
BFF – Best Friends Forever
BRB – Be Right Back
NP – No Problem
BTW – By The Way
WTF – What The %&$@

EMOTICONS:
:-) - Smile
;-) - Wink
:-P - Tongue sticking out
:-D - Big Smile
:-$ - Money Mouth
:-( - Frown
:’( - Tear/Cry
B-) - Sunglasses Wearing Smiley