Internet Slang of Yesteryear

[st3phvee]

I miss the once-popular "netizen". It's parallel to "citizen" carries an implication of both rights and responsibilities: a reminder that "netiquette" is a thing that binds us.

I also miss "surfing": the experience of browsing from website to website by exploring the network of hyperlinks. Nowadays we live in a more search-oriented Web experience, and "surfing" isn't something most people routinely do (outside of getting lost on Wikipedia or TV Tropes). A sad loss.

Ha, I used "netizen" on my most recent blog post! I also miss the concept of "surfing" the internet. Reminds me of this gem:

[musicobsessed107]

Well, this thread is definitely giving me some good tips for what words and slang I should use online and singlehandedly revive (even if that wasn't the intention of it). XD

Now to answer the actual question, I do remember emoticons (not emojis, but their predecessors that used letters and characters already on your computer's keyboard to type out faces and symbols in the not so olden days) being more common when I was a kid compared to now, even though I'm pretty sure the usage of emoticons was slowly declining by then.

Also, this slightly predates my time, but on a related note, I did hear that people used to say "get pwned" in video games around the 7th generation console era.

[Skyweaver]

Of course there were lots of "smileys" in that pre-emoji era, and some level of imagination in how people would use their own. I'd often use =o), for example.

I've noticed that emoticons have of course made a comeback, such as :3 for cute/cat face, and I myself also use x_x as basically the non-overused equivalent of the skull emoji, 0_0 and ._. for shocked/surprised, and -_- for bored. I also noticed that some emoticons have been forgotten to time, such as :S for confused.