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Social Media Vocabulary: OMG, WTF Does That Mean Edition

ByAndrea Rickett

social media, acronyms, facebook acronyms, what do these mean, LOL, BTW, FTWChatting, texting, status updates, IM’s, and all the text based communication we do has given us, for better or worse, a slough of interesting acronyms. Below are some of the most popular ones being used on social networks, in tweets, and various places on the web.

We want to make sure you know what all of these mean because it can be difficult to understand some posts if you don’t, especially if you’re talking with any of my friends, it seems generation Y’ers will do anything to save a few characters. If you come across one that isn’t below, post it to the comments and we will do our best to find the meaning for you.

  1. FTW: For the win. This is a phrase used to get across enthusiasm in a comment. Many times though, FTW is used sarcastically.
  2. BTW: By the way. Just a faster way to say ‘by the way’.
  3. LOL: Laugh out loud. While it doesn’t necessarily mean the person on the other end is laughing out loud, it does mean that they find whatever they are referring to with LOL to be funny.
  4. WTF: What the F*%$ or ‘frick’. A phrase used to get across disbelief. Something that doesn’t make sense or makes someone angry will often get a WTF. (WTF may have been invented and was definitely popularized by this NSFW viral video.)
  5. OMG: Oh my God. This could be used in many contexts as it just a short hand way of exclaiming ‘Oh my God’!

We know there are lot’s of these out there so if you run into one let us know. Feel free to try and stump us!