Learn the IM Lingo
September 18, 2007 – 6:12 am
Every cop knows that he has to stay current with the vernacular of the street. Most of us are pretty good with the various street drug names but how well versed are you on electronic lingo? Oh sure, you probably can identify lol (laugh out loud) or c u l8r (see you later) but what about phrases like “pwn”. It originally meant to dominate a video game opponent, as in “You got pwned!” However, it has evolved to mean dominating anyone. Knowledge such as this could be critical to an investigation where Instance Messenger or cell phone text messages are part of your evidence.
Text messaging has become so ubiquitous that it is very hard to keep up with this alternative language. Fortunately, you don’t have to. All you have to do is check out the Urban Dictionary for the latest in Gen Y shorthand.
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