Ages + Stages, Tweens & Teens

iMOM’s Guide to Text and Online Slang

At a recent high school football game against our biggest rival, my husband stared blankly at a sign that the other cheerleaders had made. It read: Eagles #losing. After a while he said, “OK, I can’t figure it out…what in the world does that sign mean?” I attempted to explain Twitter hashtags to him, to no avail. it was the Twitter way of saying that our mascot—the Eagles—should be categorized under the term “losing.”

You’ve heard a million times now that you need to monitor your child’s online and cell phone life by knowing who he’s communicating with and the nature of those conversations. But what good does it do you if you don’t understand a word of what you’re reading? Below are some explanations and commonly used text abbreviations that could spell trouble for your kid. But be warned—these things change constantly, and you’ll need to check one of the exhaustive online guides for abbreviations to stay current.

Hashtags:

These are brief categorizations denoted with a hash mark (#) and placed within a comment on social media sights like Twitter. It allows users to stay abreast of all the things being said on the platform related to a particular topic. For instance, if you posted about Tim Tebow, it might look like this: “Awesome game last night! #tebow.” The hashtag would direct those searching for posts related to Tebow to your post. While many people prefer to place the hashtag at the end of the post or “tweet,” it can actually be anywhere within it (Example: “Awesome game last night #Tebow!”) Since some people use applications which allow them to post to more than one social media platform simultaneously, hashtags occasionally pop up in other places, like Facebook.