Internet slang and the abbreviation of words commonly used on AOL Instant Messenger have increasingly made their way into the face-to-face conversations of UW-Madison students.

Abbreviations such as “jk” (just kidding) and “brb” (be right back) that were once solely found on AIM boxes in online conversations are now being uttered just as casually among students and young adults.

“It really irritates me when people use Instant Messenger words and abbreviations during in-person conversations … it’s almost degrading in a way, like, ‘I’m too lazy to actually tell you that I’ll be right back. Instead I’ll just mumble brb,’” said Deborah Helmreich, a UW-Madison junior.

Helmreich feels that when she meets fellow students in classes for the first time and they blurt out “btw” (by the way), it makes them sound immature.

“As students, we will soon be entering the work force and the real world. Using internet slang in conversations, especially in formal conversation, just makes people sound unintelligent and uneducated,” Helmreich said.

Internet users, mainly students and young teens, coined the term “Internet slang,” and it began with the intention of shortening words while Instant Messaging. So instead of typing “I don’t know,” people could simply type “idk.” Soon the same abbreviations began appearing in text messages—the terms often appearing in lower case and even shortening the already few seconds it takes to write a text.

While some students such as Helmreich might see the abbreviation of words and phrases as something negative, professor Marlys Macken of UW-Madison’s linguistics department sees it as creative expression of the current generation.

Professor Macken feels that Internet slang is the 20th century generation’s version of the words coined in the 1960s, such as “peace” and “cool.”

“I know students communicate through e-mail a lot and I know they have created novel ways of shortening words, but every generation has had their own slang words and inventions. It’s a creative new language game,” professor Macken said.

Andrew Sihler, a retired UW-Madison linguistics professor, said that conclusions on such a trend as Internet slang cannot be made based on casual observation.

“Any such matters as you’re interested in, to have any value, have to be based on careful observation, data collection and so on,” Sihler said, “not just casual observation, which is hugely unreliable and usually reveals more about the observer’s pet peeves than about what really is going on.”