Home

Past Articles

Conferences

Citation Information

Feedback

About the Authors

Subscription Information

Submission Guidelines

Understanding Today’s Students: txt ur vote 4 me!

By Julianne Scibetta, Albany College of Pharmacy

I found a cell phone commercial involving a young girl who speaks to her mother in txt msg to be hysterical, but I didn’t think that it would actually reflect everyday speech. That is until two days later when I heard a graduating college senior spout out a few “o-m-g”’s. I’ve found myself saying “lol” (as a word) while laughing, and I’m pretty sure that’s as redundant as “throughout this entire essay.” Am I right, Kyle?

So to reflect on a lightened summer load, let’s review some of the recent additions (officially and unofficially) to our everyday speech/communications.

A TXT Primer (also works for instant messaging)

BRB – be right back
LOL – laughing out loud
ROTFL – rolling on the floor laughing (I think this is more old school now)
OMG – Oh my God/gosh/goodness
l8r – later
BF/GF – boyfriend/girlfriend
BFF – best friend forever

New Words

Perhaps inspired by “Bennifer” of Jennifer Lopez & Ben Affleck of years ago, new slang words seek to capture the best of two words and merge into one.

Text/texted – to text message someone via cell phone/Blackberry; not to be confused with IM’ing, which means instant messaging via the internet

Ginormous – giant + enormous.

Celebutant – celebrity + debutante.

Spot-on. Taken from the British slang for “right on, exact.”

Truthiness – having the characteristic of a half-truth or disinformation; “information that comes from the gut, not from the books” to use the words of Stephen Colbert – last year’s word of the year.

McDreamy (or Dr. McDreamy/McSteamy) – from the TV drama, “Grey’s Anatomy,” referring to a very attractive person of the opposite sex (in this case, a man)

And as you’re watching the next class graduate, let’s take a look back at some of the highlights of the Beloit College Mindset List for the Class of 2007 (here’s the link: http://www.beloit.edu/~pubaff/mindset/2007.php – I apologize, I did not contact them for permission ahead of time).
• It’s all about the “bling bling.”
• Peeps are not a candy, they are your friends.
• They have been “dissing” and “burning” things all their lives.
• They can still sing the rap chorus to the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
• Iraq has always been a problem.
• CTRL + ALT + DEL is as basic as ABC.
• Paul Newman has always made salad dressing.
• Russian leaders have always looked like leaders everyplace else.
• Gas has always been unleaded.
• There has always been some association between fried eggs and your brain.
• They have never been able to find the “return” key.
• Computers have always fit in their backpacks.
• Stores have always had scanners at the checkout.
• The Army has always driven Humvees.
• They have always had a PIN number.
• There have never been dress codes in restaurant.
• They have always been able to make photocopies at home.
• Killer bees have always been swarming in the US.
• They have never seen a First Lady in a fur coat.

have a g8 summer! c u in august!
GTG!

Questions or comments? Contact the author at scibettj@acp.edu.

More about the author

Printable Version

Back to top