Know the Lingo

The following are definitions for words that are quickly becoming part of our mainstream lingo. 
 

• Gossip: Posting or sending cruel gossip to damage a person’s reputation and relationships with friends, family, and acquaintances.

• Exclusion: Deliberately excluding someone from an online group.

• Impersonation: Breaking into someone’s e-mail or other online account and sending messages that will cause embarrassment or damage to the person’s reputation and affect his or her relationship with others.

• Harassment: Repeatedly posting or sending offensive, rude, and insulting messages.

• Cyber-stalking: Posting or sending unwanted or intimidating messages, which may include threats.

• Flaming: Online fights where scornful and offensive messages are posted on websites, forums, or blogs.

• Outing and Trickery: Tricking someone into revealing secrets or embarrassing information which is then shared online.

• Cyber-threats: Remarks on the Internet threatening or implying violent behavior, displaying suicidal tendencies.

• Blogs: A combination of the words “web” and “log.” Blog refers to a webpage that is a publicly accessible, personal journal for an individual. Though often written from a personal point of views, blogs are highly public.

• Cyber-citizen: Anyone who is logged onto the internet.

• Chat room: A virtual for internet users with shared interest to converse. Chat rooms exist on every possible subject and users enter the “room” with an assumed screen name.

• IM: This is short for instant messaging, a type of communication service that enables you to communicate in real time over the internet. It is analogous to the telephone, except it uses text based, not voice based communications. It typically is from one computer to another.