Tech trends are known for shifting in the wind but there is no user group more fickle than those of the under 18 crowd. These days SMS is quickly becoming a thing of the past in lieu of social messaging apps. Depending on what they want to say teens are choosing a handful of apps to fit their needs. If they don’t want a message to hang around, they’ll use a temporary app such as Snapchat while Yik Yak offers anonymity and Kik offers a mixture of the two.
Must Know Text Messaging Acronyms and Shorthand
PAP – Post a picture
143 – I love you
Netflix and chill – Code for hooking up or a “booty call”
CD9 aka Code 9 – Code for parents are around
AF – Acronym “as f**k” used to express the severity of something (ie hot AF)
GNOC – Get Naked On Cam
OP – Original Poster
Likers get rate – This means the original poster will “rank” anyone who interacts with the post by rating them on looks/how cool they appear.
Kik Messenger is trending for a number of reasons. It allows users to send private messages that their parents can’t see. It offers the false sense of security of anonymity thru usernames and allows users to send text, pictures and video. But there’s more to Kik than meets the eye. In addition to unlimited text; you get ‘read’ receipts; can send individual group messages; surf the Web; and you access contents from within the app. Another concerning feature is that Kik allows users to search for people based on things like age and gender.
SnapChat has been growing exponentially lately especially within the teen demographic. It’s an app that was designed to make messages brief. Users can view the message for a limited amount of time before it disappears from the screen. However, a simple screenshot freezes that snap permanently to a user’s camera roll – something teens and adults learned very quickly upon release of the app.
Yik Yak is set up like a mixture of Twitter and Tinder. Like Twitter, it’s a free app that lets users post brief comments. Like Tinder, it’s geographically based. The comments are shown to 500 of the nearest Yik-Yak users (within a 1.5 mile radius). Kids are using it to share opinions, rumors, secrets, and gossip.
It’s important to discuss which messaging apps your teens are using and to establish an open dialogue about all things mobile safety. The web can be a scary place but proper dialogue, the right amount of parental advisory and staying “in the know” goes a long way to keeping our kids safe.
Surf and Sunshine is a member of the #VZWBuzz Lifestyle Blogger program. All opinions remain our own.
Parents really do have to be more hyper aware of what their kids are doing online, especially with the rise of cyberbullying. Plus, teens don’t really understand that just because the message is private or had been deleted, it can still exist somewhere.
I felt like until recently that I really knew all the new apps and was very in-tuned with technology, but I have been proven wrong. I do not look forward to handling these issues in the teenage years!
Wow! What a seriously informative post! I read it twice, to be sure I can remember these! I can’t believe I didn’t know some of them, and think every mom should read this!!
Since when is “Netflix and chill” short for a booty call?! AND why in the heck is there an acronym for Get Naked On Cam — if you want me to get naked, you can at least type a full dang sentence. Thanks for sharing this, the older I get, the more “out of the loop” I get.
I am dreading it when my kids start texting. Thanks for the heads up on these.