American teenagers use “LOL” (laugh out loud) when commenting on a funny video, while China’s post-00s generation (those born between 2000 and 2009) prefer “Xswl” (laugh me out of my face).
Unlike millennials, China’s post-00s were exposed to the Internet as kids, when China entered the age of mobile and social media.
In the back-to-school season, Tencent, together with Chinese news site Qdaily, made a creative advertisement about “black talk”. It refers to the special forms of expression used by China’s post-00s.
Black talk uses acronyms based on pinyin that has gone viral on social media. For example, post-00s Internet users like to use “ycy” instead of the full name of Yang Chaoyue, a member of the hit Chinese talent show Produce 101. Other expressions like “cqy”—making friends in messaging software QQ—and “nss”—leaving heart-warming comments on social networking site Qzone—are other elements of black talk.
Acronyms and shortened expressions may be popular as they offer shorter ways of communicating. For teenagers, they could also allow them to communicate in their own way.
According to Tencent’s 2018 Research Report on Post-00s, more than half of the post-00s surveyed said that they make decisions by themselves. They like to discover new interests, and the Internet serves as a great tool to try different things. Due to their frequent use of social media, members of this generation also quickly adapt to interpersonal communication.