But Mom, All the Cool PPL Say “ppl”!   4/27/2007 - 1,195 views, 1 Comment

“find out where ppl logged into your paypal account”

I kid you not.

Some time ago, we warned you about the dangers of Netspeak, also known as “l33t speak”, rotting the brain.

I’d say that this is good evidence.

Think about this. Someone actually searched for information about how someone hacked into their Paypal account, using the term “ppl”. And expected to find useful information.

And it turns out that a lot of people search for items on the Internet using bastardized Netspeak words like “ppl”, and expect to find useful information. Checking a search analysis tool, we learned that an appreciable number of ppl search for these terms:

cool ppl
naked ppl
gay ppl
fat ppl
hot ppl
ppl at the beach
short ppl

And, of course: lego ppl

Honest to goodness. People are conducting these searches!

And expect to find something!

And this is just one term.

A quick leafing through the Glossary of Netspeak and Textspeak (see below) lists thousands of similar terms. Oh, we knew they were out there. We may even use some of them ourselves on occasion when having off the quick instant message.

But using them as a search term - when searching for something meaningful - suggests something much more deeply rooted in the current generation’s collective psyche (not to mention their education), and frankly, I’m not sure that I want to delve any more deeply there.

Oh, and a hint to all of you who arrived at this page by searching on the term “ppl”: Try “people” instead.