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Social 101
If you’ve been watching our show and have trouble making sense of some of the things we talk about, you have come to the right place. Here you can learn about different social media platforms as well as popular social slang, acronyms, and other words or phrases we use a lot, like “influencers” or “I can’t even!” Think we missed something? Want to add to our list? Let us know!
Do you have story ideas, comments about a segment, or want to get in touch with us?
You'll find us here: keepitsocial@wgbh.org
Platforms
Facebook
Facebook is the largest social media site with over 2.4 billion active users. Its main purpose is to keep you connected with your friends and family online. You can upload a photo, share exciting news on your wall, send direct messages to your friends, watch series created for Facebook, or be a part of a group. Facebook owns Instagram and the popular messaging service WhatsApp, among other digital platforms.
Instagram
Instagram (IG) is a mobile-first platform that allows you to share a wide range of content such as photos and videos, preferably vertically. Part of the fun when adding content to IG is playing with captions and edit filters, tweaking settings, and sending messages to your followers. You can live stream to your story or watch some of your favorite series on IGTV -Instagram's own platform for the mobile-optimized viewing of long-form videos.
Pinterest
Feeling creative? Jump on Pinterest and start pinning your interests. Find new ideas on the latest fashions or share a baking recipe with followers! This app will save you a Google search and keep you scrolling for hours. Users have put literally billions of pins on Pinterest, to help spark your inspiration. When you discover Pins you love, save them to boards to keep your ideas organized and easy to find.
Snapchat
Snapchat is a popular messaging app used for sharing photos and short videos (also known as snaps) between friends. Messages sent in one-on-one chats are automatically deleted. Snapchat offers users an easy way to talk with friends and explore Live Stories from around the world.
TikTok
TikTok is the destination for short-form (typically, 15 second) mobile videos. The platform rose from the ashes of Musical.ly and is one of the fastest growing apps on social media today. TikTok is used to create short dance, lip-sync, comedy, and talent videos.
Tumblr
Tumblr is a blogging and social networking site ideal for sharing content such as text, photos, videos, music, and more. The goal is to have a way to easily share all your social activity with other people in one single location.
Twitter
Twitter is a social networking site where you’ll find plenty of journalists, public officials, athletes, and artists, among others. You can post and receive tweets – short posts up to 280 characters. When you follow someone, you can see their tweets on your timeline and vice versa. When you log on to Twitter, you’ll always see the latest content first and you can interact with other users and join the global conversation with your own tweets.
YouTube
YouTube is a video sharing platform where you can watch, like, share, comment or even upload your favorite videos. YouTube has videos for everyone! You can search for an older music video from the 1960’s or watch clips for your favorite Late Night TV show that you missed. By creating your own channel, you can upload videos for your subscribers to watch, like, comment, and share.
Social Media Acronyms
AMA
Ask Me Anything
BRB
Be Right Back
BTW
By The Way
DM
Direct Message
FB
Facebook
FBF
Flashback Friday
FOMO
Fear Of Missing Out
FYI
For Your Information
GTG
Got To Go
HBD
Happy Birthday
HMU
Hit Me Up
ICYMI
In Case You Missed It
IDC
I Don’t Care
IDK
I Don’t Know
IG
Instagram
IKR
I Know Right
ILY
I Love You
IMHO
In My Humble Opinion
IMO
In My Opinion
IRL
In Real Life
JK
Just Kidding
LMAO
Laughing my A** Off
LMK
Let Me Know
LOL
Laugh Out Loud
MCM
Man Crush Monday
MFW
My Face When...
MTFBWY
May The Force Be With You
NBD
No Big Deal
NM
Nothing Much
NVM
Never Mind
OMW
On My Way
OOTD
Outfit of the Day
PM
Private Message
PPL
People
ROFL
Rolling On The Floor Laughing
RT
Retweet
SMH
Shaking My Head
TBBH
To Be Brutally Honest
TBH
To Be Honest
TBT
Throwback Thursday
TFW
That Feeling When
TGIF
Thank God It’s Friday
TMI
Too Much Information
TOS
Terms of Service
WBU
What About You?
WBW
Way Back Wednesday
WFH
Work From Home
YOLO
You Only Live Once
Slang
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
A popular emoji, the shrug is often used when trying to express annoyance or not knowing what to make of something. It can also be used in place of “who knows” or “why not”
Amped
Very excited.
Bae
Usually refers to a person's romantic partner, came from the word babe/baby
Basic
An insult that means something or someone is boring or uncool.
Bro
Short for “brother,” “bro” is used instead of first names among friends, typically men.
Chill
Relax, calm down, or be easygoing.
Clickbait
The practice of using a provocative title with the sole purpose of driving clicks.
Cray
Abbreviation for crazy
Crush it
Advice to do well on something, “Go crush it!”
Curve ball
Something unexpected happens, like trying to hit a curve ball in baseball.
Ditch
To leave a place or person unexpectedly, or to not show up to prior plans.
Dude
A casual greeting/nickname used instead of first names.
Fam
Short for family. Refers to a person or a group of people you consider family.
Fire
When something is very good. Instead of saying “This pizza is amazing” try “This pizza is fire”.
For real
To agree with someone, emphasize a statement, or ask if someone is serious (For real?).
I can’t even
Indicates someone’s inability to convey how they feel because they’re either overjoyed or frustrated with something.
I’m down
You agree or are interested in participating.
Hang out
To spend time or do something with friends.
Legit
Something that’s good or worthwhile. Often used in agreement. Short for legitimate (meaning authentic or real).
Lit
Used to describe something fun or exciting. “This party is lit”
On fleek
On point, looking good.
Savage
When someone or something is extremely harsh or successful at insulting something/someone.
Selfie
A picture you take of yourself, either alone or with other people. Typically taken from the front camera of a phone.
Slay
Like “crushing it,” you’re “slaying” something if you do it exceptionally well.
Slide into someone’s DMs
Sending a Direct Message to someone. This phrase of sliding refers more to a flirty way of messaging.
Squad goals
A term used to describe something admirable about a group of people.
Thirsty
When someone is too eager or seems too desperate for another.
Throwing shade
The act of publicly disrespecting someone personally.
Trendjacking
Taking over a trending topic with irrelevant content.
Twitter Jail
When Twitter “temporarily suspends” an account due to reaching the limit of 100 tweets in an hour or 1000 tweets in a day.
Yaaaaaas
A particularly enthusiastic form of “yes.” You could use as many A’s as you’d like.
Terms to Know
Archiving
To delete a photo from your feed, but not permanently. You can still have access to it without the public seeing.
Bio
The small portion of any profile that followers who you are. Typically, a few sentences to tell people who you are.
Bitmoji
Animated representation of yourself used in different situations that you can share with an app or keyboard.
Block
Every platform has the setting to block a specific individual from seeing your posts/profile.
Caption
When posting a photo or video, you can enter a caption to give your audience an idea of what is happening. Sometimes, especially on Instagram, these can be a pun or a joke.
Check-in
Facebook has this feature, where you can tell your friends where you are. This is often used when you are excited about what you are doing. If you ae traveling to Los Angeles, “checking in to LAX” will let your Facebook friends know you are on a trip.
Creep
The practice of browsing someone’s profiles, photos, and videos on social media.
Direct message
A private Twitter message between two users.
Emoji
Tiny images on your second keyboard used to convey emotions or to add a little extra to a text or post.
Engagement
An interaction with other people on social networks.
Facebook/Instagram Live/ “Going Live”/ “Livestreaming”
A feature that allows you to stream live video to friends, and followers. You can get live reactions throughout and interact with those watching in real-time.
Feed
The “homepage” consisting of updates, new posts, and information.
Filter
A photographic effect that can be applied to images before posting them, from simple black-and-white or sepia to funny faces, flower crowns and puppy ears.
Gif (Graphics Interchange Format)
Small animated memes used as reactions in a text, tweet, or status.
Hashtag
A word or phrase preceded by the “#” sign to showcase some sort of trend that you can follow.
Influencer
A social media user with a large audience who can gain attention about a trend, topic, company, or product by being a passionate brand advocate.
Like
Double tapping, or pressing thumbs up or the heart on a post because you “like it”
Stories
Snapchat crafted this special feature. If you want to share something to a larger audience than just one person, but don’t want to do a whole post, using the story function is the perfect medium. They are visible for 24 hours, but you can always save them in your camera roll.
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