Thursday, January 8, 2009

AFK


If you're reading this then I'm going to go ahead and assume you know the basics of modern-day text chat like the acronyms lol and brb. If not, this post isn't for you, and to be honest, this blog probably isn't for you.

So why are you still here?

Seriously, the back button is up there, shoo.

For the rest of you, if you're like me and pride yourself on being the one kid in your neighborhood who knew how to set up an IPX connection back in '95 you probably know a little acronym that goes by AFK. It's recently come to my attention that kids these days have no idea what the hell this means anymore.

I spend a lot of my time on Facebook, because where else is stalking not only socially acceptable, but encouraged? And I find myself chatting with my college friends a lot in that lousy little flash app on the bottom of the page. Well, when I need to excuse myself from the conversation to go clog my toilet, I often type AFK out of habit and thing nothing of it. After the half-hour of plunging I come back to something like this:

ThatGuy: AFK
RandomFriend##: AFK?
RandomFriend##: Dude, where'd you go?
RandomFriend##: Dude?
RandomFriend##: Alright, fuck you man.

RandomFriend## is offline.

I guess this is just my way of being the crotchety old man who doesn't want to accept change, but to all you text-crazy punks who speak in letters rather than whole words:

AFK means AWAY FROM KEYBOARD.

The only reason I point this out is because AFK is a standard in text-chat for games, so if you're not a gamer but have gamer friends who use it, that's what they mean. Remember, text shorthand was around long before your phone had text messaging.

-That Guy

3 comments:

  1. i think most of your demographic know this...

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  2. Oh, you'd be surprised.....

    I actually don't use it anymore because of those people, and I can't tell you how many blank stares I get when I used to Use it. :-)

    -Me

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  3. I actually just learned what AFK means last year...I think mega-nerds who don't PC game are excused from this one.

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