Teenagers create secret online language

Tuesday, 27 April 2010, 16:12 IST   |    1 Comments
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London: Teenagers on social networking sites such as Facebook and Bebo are creating a secret language to stop adults knowing what they are up to, researchers say. The teens are using it to stop parents and employers judging them by their social activities such as partying and drinking. So instead of writing they are drunk, teens post 'Getting MWI' - or mad with it', reports telegraph.co.uk. Being in a relationship is known as "taken" or "Ownageeee" and "Ridneck" means to feel embarrassed. Meanwhile, girls posting "Legal" are indicating that they are above 16 and legally allowed to have sex. Lisa Whittaker, a postgraduate student at the University of Stirling, who studied teens aged 16-18 on Bebo in Scotland said that the slang had been created to keep their activities private, and cited the example of one young girl who was sacked after bosses found pictures of her drinking on the website. "Young people often distort the languages they use by making the pages difficult for those unfamiliar with the distortions and colloquialisms," said Whittaker. "The language used on Bebo seems to go beyond abbreviations that are commonly used in text messaging, such as removing all the vowels. This is not just bad spelling, which would suggest literacy issues, but a deliberate attempt to creatively misspell words," she added.
Source: IANS
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