As e-mail becomes more and more a part of our lives, so has what I have come to call “e-bonics,” a kind of Readers’ Digest Condensed version of English. You’ve no doubt seen the emoticons, or “smileys” used in e-mail or online chatrooms. You may have even heard people speak in e-bonics: “BTW, I’ll BRB” just means “By the way, I’ll be right back.” E-bonics, I predict, will become more and more pervasive.
When Jon Lebkowsky interviewed filmmaker Doug Block in February, they communicated by e-mail, and I opted to leave in the acronyms because it made sense to convey the story in the same cyber-spirit in which it was conducted. Likewise, within this interview with Signal to Noise author Carla Sinclair, she sprinkles smileys throughout her replies, imbuing her comments with whimsey and good humor.
COMMON E-BONICS
AFK Away from keyboard
BAK Back at keyboard
BBL/BBS Be back later/be back soon
BRB Be right back
BTW By the way
GMTA Great minds think alike
IMHO In my humble opinion
IRL In real life
LMAO laughing my ass off
LOL laughing out loud
ROFL rolling on the floor laughing
ROFLPIMP rolling on the floor laughing peeing in my pants
EMOTICONS
: ) or 🙂 happy smiley
: ( unhappy smiley
}:) devilish smiley
: D laughing smiley
: P sticking out tongue smiley
: * kissy smiley
_I_ cyber version of an international hand gesture that does not mean hi or goodbye.
– Margaret Moser
This article appears in April 10 • 1998 and April 10 • 1998 (Cover).