Teenagers create secret online language
April 27th, 2010 - 1:52 am ICT by IANS
London, April 27 (IANS) Teenagers on social networking sites such as Facebook and Bebo are creating a secret language to stop adults knowing what they are up to, researchers say.
The teens are using it to stop parents and employers judging them by their social activities such as partying and drinking. So instead of writing they are drunk, teens post ‘Getting MWI’ - or mad with it’, reports telegraph.co.uk.
Being in a relationship is known as “taken” or “Ownageeee” and “Ridneck” means to feel embarrassed.
Meanwhile, girls posting “Legal” are indicating that they are above 16 and legally allowed to have sex.
Lisa Whittaker, a postgraduate student at the University of Stirling, who studied teens aged 16-18 on Bebo in Scotland said that the slang had been created to keep their activities private, and cited the example of one young girl who was sacked after bosses found pictures of her drinking on the website.
“Young people often distort the languages they use by making the pages difficult for those unfamiliar with the distortions and colloquialisms,” said Whittaker.
“The language used on Bebo seems to go beyond abbreviations that are commonly used in text messaging, such as removing all the vowels. This is not just bad spelling, which would suggest literacy issues, but a deliberate attempt to creatively misspell words,” she added.
- Teens on Facebook using code language for privacy - Apr 26, 2010
- O.M.G., it's almost 100 years old! - Aug 07, 2012
- Why some scents drive females into frenzy? - Jul 20, 2011
- Don't distort language, Bangladesh court tells media - Feb 17, 2012
- Adults mimicking teen-speak 'turning English language sloppy' - Dec 07, 2010
- Chinese slangs find way into Oxford dictionary - Sep 22, 2010
- SRK had tough time teaching son (Movie Snippets) - Feb 17, 2012
- Learn the tech slang before you are dubbed ''404'' - Dec 11, 2008
- Teens keeping late nights might be into risky behaviour - Mar 05, 2012
- It's time for Britons to learn English! - Feb 24, 2012
- Its oficial: Txt spek hs no impct on kids' spelng abilty - Sep 23, 2009
- Even Victorian poets used txtng lingo 130 years ago! - Aug 24, 2010
- Pakistani ban on 1,000 words lampooned - Nov 19, 2011
- Adult-supervised drinking in teens may up alcohol use - Apr 29, 2011
- Facebook, Twitter make girls 'appear more aggressive' - Jun 30, 2012
Tags: abbreviations, bebo, colloquialisms, deliberate attempt, distortions, drunk teens, facebook, literacy issues, misspell, postgraduate student, secret language, slang, social networking sites, spelling, teenagers, text messaging, university of stirling, vowels, whittaker, young girl