Poll: The internet has its own language, do you feel fluent in it? (think acronyms, slang, emojis)
Konuyu gönderen: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
SİTE PERSONELİ
Nov 12, 2025

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "The internet has its own language, do you feel fluent in it? (think acronyms, slang, emojis)".

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Alex Lichanow
Alex Lichanow
Almanya
Local time: 07:27
İngilizce > Almanca
+ ...
Mostly Nov 12, 2025

I am more or less an "internet native" and have been around since the primordial soup of memes, when Amazon was still a glorified online book store with barely anything else on offer. So yes, I am pretty much fluent in what I consider "normal" internet speak.
However, I refuse to learn the latest wave of meaningless corporate, marketing and AI speak, which also mostly happens on the internet.


Philip Lees
 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portekiz
Local time: 06:27
Üye (2007)
İngilizce > Portekizce
+ ...
Other Nov 12, 2025

So, now the Quick Polls obsession has shifted from AI to the Internet language? Exactly the same question was asked one week ago...

Daryo
Maria Laura Curzi
writeaway
Philip Lees
 
Zea_Mays
Zea_Mays  Identity Verified
İtalya
Local time: 07:27
İngilizce > Almanca
+ ...
déjà vu Nov 12, 2025

https://www.proz.com/polls/22966?action=results&poll_ident=22966&sp=polls

Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Laura Curzi
writeaway
Philip Lees
 
Daryo
Daryo
Local time: 06:27
Sırpça > İngilizce
+ ...
Or even before that ... Nov 12, 2025

Alex Lichanow wrote:

I am more or less an "internet native" and have been around since the primordial soup of memes, when Amazon was still a glorified online book store with barely anything else on offer. So yes, I am pretty much fluent in what I consider "normal" internet speak.
However, I refuse to learn the latest wave of meaningless corporate, marketing and AI speak, which also mostly happens on the internet.


Anyone remembers a web browser called Mosaic (that could even display images!)/ bulletin boards / Compuserve / Netscape?

Even at that time the relatively rare internet users found it necessary to create their own lingo. Like the fashion to include a 'z' at the end of everything and anything.

Like calling professionals the 'proz'.


Sebastian Witte
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Laura Curzi
Philip Lees
 
Alex Lichanow
Alex Lichanow
Almanya
Local time: 07:27
İngilizce > Almanca
+ ...
Xtremely c00l lettrZ Nov 13, 2025

Daryo wrote:

Anyone remembers a web browser called Mosaic (that could even display images!)/ bulletin boards / Compuserve / Netscape?

Even at that time the relatively rare internet users found it necessary to create their own lingo. Like the fashion to include a 'z' at the end of everything and anything.

Like calling professionals the 'proz'.


Wasn't the Z at the end of anything and everything a hip-hop thing that just kind of spilt over to the internet?


Maria Laura Curzi
 
Tom in London
Tom in London
Birleşik Krallık
Local time: 06:27
İtalyanca > İngilizce
Sometimes Nov 16, 2025

Daryo wrote:

Anyone remembers a web browser called Netscape?


Often also known as Nutscrape.


 
Daryo
Daryo
Local time: 06:27
Sırpça > İngilizce
+ ...
Maybe ... Nov 16, 2025

Alex Lichanow wrote:

Daryo wrote:

Anyone remembers a web browser called Mosaic (that could even display images!)/ bulletin boards / Compuserve / Netscape?

Even at that time the relatively rare internet users found it necessary to create their own lingo. Like the fashion to include a 'z' at the end of everything and anything.

Like calling professionals the 'proz'.


Wasn't the Z at the end of anything and everything a hip-hop thing that just kind of spilt over to the internet?


You mean hackers were so impressed by gangsta talk they started imitating it?

Not impossible, language works sometimes in mysterious ways.


 
Denis Fesik
Denis Fesik
Local time: 08:27
İngilizce > Rusça
+ ...
Just occurred to me Nov 16, 2025

The internet has had many languages at different times. If you look it up in Lurk, which I mentioned in the other thread with the same name, you'll find interesting details of how internet folks would communicate over time. Ye Russian speakers here, please don't check out "Упячка"—it's irrelevant and no longer exists. My point is different though. Before the generation theory had been invented, the level of stratification it imposes on us was impossible for me to imagine as a boy, teen, ... See more
The internet has had many languages at different times. If you look it up in Lurk, which I mentioned in the other thread with the same name, you'll find interesting details of how internet folks would communicate over time. Ye Russian speakers here, please don't check out "Упячка"—it's irrelevant and no longer exists. My point is different though. Before the generation theory had been invented, the level of stratification it imposes on us was impossible for me to imagine as a boy, teen, or young man. An idea like, "Ew, she's so old! I think she's thirty now," could never ever cross my mind, honest. We were all the same bunch sharing the planet... or at least the country. And today, if I publicly use internet slang dating back 10 years just because I find it cool, someone younger will definitely say, "Ew, he's so..., etc." (wasn't I supposed to write "sick," "wicked" or something instead of "cool"?). We've all become divided as if by magic, and now there are suddenly so many people I can't understand because generation problem. To me, language is not stratified like that but is instead a continuum formed over many centuries of wonderful history. I can casually insert a 16-century saying into my speach or writing if it's apropos. What will an alpha-gen do in response to such a thing? Google it, maybe? But I recently read that alphas no longer google things—it makes no sense to them (hello AI). Maybe it's all exclusively my picture of life (haven't spoken to anyone about it). And then my overall conclusion may have some value to it: technology does make us divided. Maybe it's even part of the old divide et impera scheme ▲ Collapse


Daryo
P.L.F. Persi (X)
 


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Poll: The internet has its own language, do you feel fluent in it? (think acronyms, slang, emojis)






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