The use of social media and the web in general is awash with odd sayings and initialisms. Sometimes they leave users a little confused. Social media experts at How Sociable analysed Google searches for common Internet initialisms (How Sociable call these “acronyms” although many do not actually form words).
The company analysed the number of searches for each standalone initialisms combined with ‘what does acronym mean’, ‘acronym meaning’ and ‘what does acronym stand for’ to find which ones confuse people the most. This search was undertaken from a U.K. user perspective.
This revealed that ‘POV’ was found to be the most confusing initialism, with around 100,541 searches per month. The initialism is well-known among writers and photographers to stand for ‘Point Of View’.
Over the past year, use of the initialism has appeared to go viral on TikTok and Instagram posts. While it was originally used by content creators to refer to videos shot from the first-person viewer perspective, the term has since been misappropriated by some creators to refer to any skit centring around a person in an uncomfortable or awkward situation. An example of the initialism used within a caption would be, ‘POV: It’s going out time and your date is late.’
‘SMH’ was found to be the second most confusing initialism, with 69,850 searches per month on average. The term, which stands for ‘Shaking My Head’, is commonly used online in situations where someone is disappointed or frustrated with the conversation or another person.
‘SMH’ often features in forums where emojis or other icons are not deployed, such as Reddit, or during online gaming chats on Twitch or Roblox. For iPhone and Android users, typing this acronym over text prompts the Face Palm emoji, which shows a person covering their face in disappointment.
Coming in as the third most confusing initialism with 36,881 total searches per month is ‘NSFW’. This can mean either ‘Not Safe For Work’ or ‘Not Suitable For Work’ and is used online to indicate text or imagery that is explicit in nature or something that would be considered embarrassing or inappropriate to see or read in public.
The 20 most Googled initialism in the UK are:
| Acronym | Meaning | UK Average Monthly Search Volume |
| POV | “Point of View” | 100,541.67 |
| SMH | “Shaking My Head” | 69,850.00 |
| NSFW | “Not Safe For Work” | 36,881.67 |
| LMAO | “Laughing My Ass Off” | 24,804.17 |
| TLDR | “Too Long; Didn’t Read” | 21,534.17 |
| IMO | “In My Opinion” | 20,423.33 |
| AWOL | “Absent Without Leave” | 20,141.67 |
| DM | “Direct Message” | 19,075.00 |
| TBH | “To Be Honest” | 16,773.33 |
| BTW | “By The Way” | 16,667.50 |
| BAE | “Before Anyone Else” | 13,956.67 |
| TMI | “Too Much Information” | 12,809.17 |
| AFK | “Away From Keyboard” | 11,971.67 |
| FYI | “For Your Information” | 11,774.17 |
| IRL | “In Real Life” | 11,236.67 |
| LOL | “Laugh Out Loud” | 11,118.33 |
| TTYL | “Talk To You Later” | 11,011.67 |
| YOLO | “You Only Live Once” | 10,962.50 |
| LMK | “Let Me Know” | 10,897.50 |
| IDK | “I Don’t Know” | 10,697.50 |
Looking at the table, ‘LMAO’ is the fourth most confusing online initialism with 24,804 searches per month on average. The term, which is short for ‘Laughing my ass off’ is typically used online in response to amusing content or situations.
The fifth most confusing online acronym in the UK is ‘TLDR’ with 21,534 searches per month on average. Meaning ‘Too long; Didn’t Read,’ the term is typically used to preface a simple summary of a longer piece.
