Luv it, hate it but it’s here to stay

Cyber junkies say it is SHRT (short) and SWT (sweet). The new language popularised by Internet chat lines and cellphones is truly GR8 (great). Vinita Mehra reports

Pop group BoyZone perhaps had the dictionary words in mind when they set out to woo the girl of their dreams. But for the new cyber generation sharply focused on the Internet, words have a staccato style all their own. Sorry, no dictionaries would be of any help.

It’s cool to chat on the Net and shoot messages on the mobile to friends. Short messaging service (SMS) is hip, fashionable and trendy. The Indian teen has fallen for it as instantly as the instant messages sent and received on numerous chat sites and mobile phones.

Welcome to the whole new world of net junkies and SMS chatters. A generation back it was the hippie culture that influenced the young. Then came the computers and mobiles and now, the Y2K folk swear by the latest techno-fad — net chatting and SMS.

With cyber cafes sprouting in every nook and corner and becoming the most popular hangout haunts after movie theatres and pizza parlours, the craze is only growing more and more. Addicts spend hours in virtual space. "If I don’t chat with my net buddies daily, I get withdrawal symptoms," says Namrata, a first year student of Delhi’s Lady Sriram College, who started chatting just for ‘time pass’ oops, TP in Net lingo.

Trendy being the buzzword, these Netizens have evolved a language of their own. As 19-year-old Vikas Rao, a self-confessed cyber freak, explains: "When I log in, I am in a world of my own, I speak a language that only my net pals and I understand."

A typical conversation between two cyber freaks could be as under. The girl’s code name is Cute Lamb and the boy is Hercules 21. The meaning of their language is in brackets.

Cute lamb: g2g (got to go)

Hercules21: ? (why?)

Cute lamb: Ma calling. (mother’s calling)

Hercules21: cu Call b4n (see you call before noon)

Cute_lamb: ? (why?)

Hercules21: jlt (just like that)

This might sound Greek or Latin to ordinary mortals. But certainly not to a cyber freak who knows that to be a part of the ‘in’ crowd one has to be well versed in Net lore. As Shalini Kapoor states: "My Net pal would ROLTFL (i.e. roll on the floor with laughter) if I can’t use the right lingo when chatting."

To be virtually accepted, you need to follow Net etiquettes. The first being abbreviations. Here are some samples`85BTW (by the way), LOL (laughing out loud), WBF? (wanna be friends?), BWL (bored with life) and CUL8R (see you later)`85 the list goes on.

One reason for the popularity of this language is the convenience. Delhi- based psychiatrist Vinod Malhotra says there are no rules here. "The net language is evolving and it would become a full-fledged way of communication in a few years time."

Delhi and Mumbai have the heaviest SMS traffic in India. Delhi’s traffic seems to grow by an amazing 30 per cent per month. Worldwide over 100 billion messages are sent every month and the projection is ten times in two years.

On any given time, the number of teenagers who log in or send SMS’s is far more than other age groups. This has become an issue of worry among parents. As 14-year-old Simran’s mother says: "After coming from school, my daughter is glued to her computer."

Parents, psychiatrists and sociologists might be pulling their hair apart but the urban teenager is undeterred. As Niharika says, "It’s my life, my virtual world, my language so you better understand it."

And if it’s still B3 (blah blah blah) for you then 4CS JG ACTIV8ED (for Christ’s sake just get activated!)— NF