Do you know what your teen is texting?

Did you know that there are currently more than 2,000 texting abbreviations? (LOL, TTYL, NSFW)  And there are more created each day as students look for new ways to shorten messages and give them a cryptic code so there parents have no idea what they are talking about.

It is so tough to stay in the know about texting lingo amongst teenagers as well as all the other things that students are doing.  The Wall Street Journal just recently published this great article about the cultural world that is texting, twitter and the shorthand that has been created.  I recommend every parent reads this article.

Oh, and then for fun, LG (the phone manufacturer) is trying to help people out when it comes to translating text shorthand.  They have created  a website, http://dtxtr.com/, that allows you to type in a text shorthand, (PAW, POS, KUTGW, SWU) and get the translation into “normal” English.  You can also type in a phrase and it will let you know if there is a txting way to say it, like laugh out loud is LOL and talk to you later is TTYL.

So go have fun. And if you have a shorthand definition that doesn’t come up, you can add it!