Internet slang: History and Key Facts

Internet slang (also known as Internet shorthand, cyber-slang, netspeak, or digispeak) is a non-standard or unofficial form of language used by people on the Internet to communicate with one another. A popular example of Internet slang is "lol", meaning "laughing out loud". Since Internet slang is constantly changing, it is difficult to provide a standardized definition. However, it can be understood to be any type of slang that Internet users have popularized and, in many cases, have coined. Such terms often originate with the purpose of saving keystrokes or to compensate for character limit restrictions. Many people use the same abbreviations in texting, instant messaging, and social networking websites. Acronyms, keyboard symbols, and abbreviations are common types of Internet slang. New dialects of slang, such as leet or lolspeak, develop as ingroup Internet memes rather than time savers. Internet slang is also used in face-to-face, real life communication.

Source and attribution

Text excerpted from Internet slang by Wikipedia contributors, available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0. The extract is abridged and formatting has been adjusted; the adapted text on this page is shared under the same licence. Revision history.