11 Fun English social media abbreviations and their meanings

Using social media in another language can be confusing. All the slang, idioms and abbreviations people use can make even simple sentences tricky to understand. It needn’t be that way, though. Use these ten English social media abbreviations to make your life easier next time you are using English online.

When giving your opinion, you might want to write IMHO before sharing your idea. It means ‘in my humble opinion’ and shows that you know what you are writing is not necessarily a fact but based on your own ideas.

Your online life is sometimes completely different to what you do when you are not connected. Use the abbreviation IRL or ‘in real life’ to talk about the world outside the internet.

Sharing links and information is one of the most useful things we do on social media. Sometimes that means we end up watching the same cat video seventeen times, though. Share a link or some information using the abbreviation ICYMI or ‘in case you missed it’ to show that the people you are speaking to may have seen whatever you are sharing already.

If you are sharing something for information and don’t expect someone to do anything in response to your message, you can use FYI to show that the message is ‘for your information’ and the reader doesn’t need to take any action.

Fans of the website Reddit will be familiar with this one. AMA means ‘ask me anything’ in a sort of interview where the public ask the questions rather than an interviewer.

We get asked our opinions a lot online. If you don’t know the answer to something, you can write IHDK to say ‘I honestly don’t know’. It’s better to be honest than get caught out trying to make up an answer.

When you don’t want to make a decision on something, the abbreviation WYL is a useful way to say ‘whatever you like’ and pass the responsibility to another person to decide.

If you are surprised, OMG! – meaning ‘Oh my gosh/God!’ – is a way to show it. Sometimes English speakers even use the abbreviation when speaking instead of saying the full expression.

Social media is full of funny clips and images. Writing LOL shows you are ‘laughing out loud’ and if it’s even funnier, you might be ROFL – rolling on the floor laughing!

Anyway, there are so many abbreviations out there and I can’t spend all day here so TTYL (talk to you later)! What social media abbreviations do you use in English? Share your own examples in the comments section below.

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