OMG BTW WTF is HMU? IDK STFU, TTYL!

If you understood that title, as many of you did I'm sure, kudos. Isn't it somewhat bizzarre how present acronyms are in our lives these days? I recently read that HMU was the top status trend of 2010 on Facebook, reaching 80,000 mentions per day by the end of summer! Pretty incredible really, especially considering I had never even heard the term until I read that article. For my readers who are in the even slower lane than I am, HMU stands for Hit Me Up. As I wrote a few weeks ago, ZOMG is an acronym that's also new to me. Essentially meaning the same thing as OMG but an exaggerated version that was created by accident. It makes me wonder why certain acronyms appear in our vernacular and actually stick. I'm also curious how people first learn what these acronyms mean? Do they ask their friends? Look them up on the internet? Guess?

It's particularly amusing when someone you know thinks the term means something completely different from what it actually means. E.g. my brother thought LOL meant Lots Of Love for the first two years he was using it. Kinda cute huh? But also rather embarassing. I can't blame him, how would one know laughing out loud would become such a commonplace phrase (and one that I STILL won't get on board with). I just don't think that if you're actually laughing out loud, you would only write LOL - it seems a little timid. If I'm really howling, I'm clearly going to type out hahahahahaha, to display my enthusiasm. Or, if you're like a friend of mine, you could add an extra letter "R" in front of "LOL" to signify REALLY Laughing Out Loud, as opposed to faking it.

I took about 2 minutes to write down the acronyms I use on a semi-frequent basis (or at least am aware of what they mean) and the list is considerable:

LOL
LMAO

WTF
MILF
ROFL

OMG

ZOMG

ASAP
RSVP

FML

HU

WWJD
STFU
BTW
BRB
IDK
JK
TTYL
BFF
MO
NSFW

DTF (thank you Jersey Shore)

...and now let's add HMU to the list for good measure! What do you think the next popular acronym should be?