ACRONYM IN SPEAKING ALSO ON SOCIAL MEDIA;

WHATSAPP AND INSTAGRAM

Aprilianissa Sastia Ratri
English Literature Department
State Islamic University of Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung

Abstract
An acronym is a process by means of which a new word is formed out of the initial
letters of the words which the acronym consists of. This process happens because the
name of the phrase is too long to say, therefore the speakers create a shorter way to
say the phrase. Nowadays, In this digital era, when everything done fast, people in
social media, people use an acronym, to be look cool, shorten time or for business.

Keywords: Acronym, digital era, social media, Instagram, Twitter.

I. Introduction
Speaking is the action of conveying information or expressing one’s thaught and
feelings in spoken language.

Social media are interactive computer-mediated technologies that facilitate the

creation and sharing of information, ideas, career interests and other forms of
expression via virtual communities and networks. Users typically access social media
services via web-based technologies on desktops and laptops, or download services
that offer social media functionally to their mobile devices (e.g., smartphones and
tablets).

In this digital era, created many social media application to give us an easy way to
communicating and stay in touch with one another. Mean that everything is done fast.
This happen when we communicating with another people. When the phrase is too
long too say, therefore users use an Acronym this is to create a shorter way to say the
phrase.

Instagram (also known as IG) is a photo and video-sharing social networking

service owned by Facebook, Inc. It was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger
and launched in October 2010 exclusively on IOS. A version for Android devices was
released a year and half later, in April 2012.
 WhatsApp Messenger is a freeware and cross-platform messaging and Voice over
IP (VoIP) service owned by Facebook. The application allows the sending of text
messages and voice calls.

II. Data Analysis and Findings

Language is using for us to speak on purpose to communicating with each other,
when people say the phrase that is too long, they create a shorter way to say it, and it
is called an Acronym. For example, when people getting very curious about someone
business, they will be saying ‘kepo’ It stands for knowing every particular object.
Actually I have just known this, I guess ‘kepo’ is Indonesian Languages, but it is
English Languages. Acronyms usually name political, industrial, and social
institutions, not single or compound words. They usually consist of a long phrase
which is then made into an acronym and formed into a word. For example ‘Golkar’ is
stands for Golongan Karya, then ‘Angkot’ is stands for Angkutan Kota, the last is my
college name is ‘UIN SGD Bandung’ is stands for Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan
Gunung Djati Bandung.

As a WhatsApp users, because many groups for courses are in it. First is the phrase
of ‘by the way’ is made into btw. I try to search it, then I found this acronym used a lot
in text message application, or WhatsApp 60 times used.

The second is the phrase of ‘happy birthday’ is made into hbd. And this time, I
found this acronym is 41 times used.

The third is the phrase of ‘get well soon’ is made into gws. I found this acronym is
46 times used. And there is another one of this Acronym, it can just added really after
well become ‘get well really soon’ or in Acronym is gwrs.

The fourth is the phrase of ‘thanks’ is made into thx. I found this acronym is 43
times used.

The fifth is the phrase ‘laugh out loud’ is made into lol. I found this acronym is 35
times used.

The sixth is the phrase ‘for your information’ is made into fyi. I found this
acronym is 20 times.

The seventh is the phrase ‘out of topic’ is made into oot. I found this acronym is
just used 1 time.

From this, these kinds of acronyms are used a lot in text messages, and everybody
understands their meaning even when seeing them for the first time. Words are
clipped irregularly such as “thanks” becomes thx, just like what i have found. Besides
the long phrases which are made into acronyms, there are some short phrases that can
as well made into acronyms.

Nowadays, people do their business online based. Then, Instagram is one of the
social media that those people choose to sell what they are offer. There are several
Acronyms that can be found on it. First is COD, it stands for ‘Cash On Delivery’
which is a type of transaction in which the recipient makes payment for a good at the
time of delivery. Another Acronym is PO, it stands for ‘Pre-Order’ , the meaning is
an order placed for an item that has not yet been released. The idea for pre-orders
came because people found it hard to get popular items in stores because of their
popularity.

As an Instagram users, I also found several Acronyms. For example in someone’s

photo caption, when they are take a head to toe photos, they photo’s caption is OOTD,
which is stands for ‘outfit of the day’. Another Acronym is AOTD and QOTD, AOTD
is stands for ‘answer of the day’ . When people upload a picture, and it is about a
quotes or words, the caption is QOTD, which is stands for ‘quote of the day’. Then,
when people try to answer in someone’s post that asking about something, they will
be saying CMIIW, which is stands for ‘correct me if i’m wrong’. The last, when
people upload a picture of them and asking about how they are look like, is it good or
not, they caption will be WDYT, which is stands for ‘what do you think’.

This shows that Acronym is used to shorten some phrases that is too long to be say
or write just like all the example above.

III. Conclution

As the result of this research which is to shows some Acronyms that use when in
speaking and on social media, WhatsApp and Instagram that there are no universal
standards for the multiple names for such abbreviations or for the orthographic
styling. In English and most other languages, such abbreviatioms historically had
limited use, but they became much more common in the 20th century. Which is when
the Internet are appeared, when social media exists. Then Acronyms are known as a
type of word formation process, and they were viewed as a subtype of blending.
Acronym is use when the phrase is too long too say, therefore users use an Acronym
to create a shorter way to say the phrase. Besides the long phrases which are made
into acronyms, there are some short phrases as well which one made into acronyms,
For example O.D, it stands for ‘Over Dose’, A.M, it stands for ‘Ante Merediem’, P.M,
it stands for ‘Post Merediem’. A.C, it stands for ‘Air Conditioned’
 References

Deliani, S. (2014). Exploring Acronym in Indonesian Language; Structure Formation

and Internal Syllable. Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 20-24.

Raja, V. L. (2014). Word Formation: A Morphological Analysis. Journal of Language

and Literature, 81-86.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/WhatsApp

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instagram

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cashondelivery.asp