Is Your Txtspk a Turnoff? Find Out with Our Quiz

I recently heard about a co-worker whose mom replied “lol” to a friend’s Facebook post about a pet passing away. She meant “lots of love” but learned “LOL” means “laughing out loud.” Mistakes like this may surprise those who think they know textese well. The first known use of “LOL” for “laughing out loud” was in FidoNews in 1989, and it was recognized by the Oxford English Dictionary in 2011.

Yet, searches for “LOL meaning” occur about 16,800 times monthly in the U.S., based on analysis by Unscramblerer.com. Terms like TBH, meaning “to be honest” and Googled 85,500 times monthly, are more obscure. Acronyms fly between phones and social media, often puzzling many.

The disconnect is clear. You aim for a message to be casual yet efficient, but confusion occurs at the other end. Acronyms suggest low effort, raising questions about sincerity and quality. There is research supporting this. Researchers at Stanford and the University of Toronto analyzed over 200,000 conversations on Tinder. They found that acronyms signaled low effort, making senders seem less sincere. This led to fewer replies and lower engagement.

Even on Discord, a place of internet experts, acronyms decreased response likelihood. Interestingly, 84% of senders thought recipients didn’t mind abbreviations. Could AI change this? AI tools ease full replies, possibly making abbreviations signal “real human here.” However, Stanford researcher Eileen Zhang doubts it. If spelling out phrases becomes easy, shortcuts might stand out more.

Uncertain whether txtspk is an issue? Try our quiz and see if you end up SYH, or “shaking your head,” a term Googled 1,100 times monthly, according to Unscramblerer.

1. What is your OTP?
   Guess the sender’s meaning.
2. Sorry, we can’t invite you to dinner.
   Guess the sender’s meaning.
3. We are all celebrating! WYD.
   Guess the sender’s meaning.
4. I told my friend about you … WYLL?
   Guess the sender’s meaning.
5. We’ve been talking all day … WYF.
   Guess the sender’s meaning.
6. HMU when you get home.
   Guess the sender’s meaning.
7. I didn’t expect that, ICL.
   Guess the sender’s meaning.
8. My cat is LOML.
   Guess the sender’s meaning.
9. IIRC, the meeting is at 3 p.m.
   Guess the sender’s meaning.
10. He is DTM.
    Guess the sender’s meaning.

Your score: 0 of 10. Answer all questions to see your result.

Methodology: Unscramblerer.com used Google Trends for popular texting acronyms and Ahrefs for monthly search data, capturing 100 variations of texting acronyms.