The sad reason why we don't use the internet slang 'brb' anymore

Our relationship with the internet is always evolving, and this is particularly clear with new words gaining popularity online reflecting what's trending within popular culture.

A recent example of this is the word "rizz," meaning the ability to attract a romantic partner (a shortened version of 'charisma') which was crowned as Oxford Word of the Year for 2023.

But while new internet slang is often discussed, some have observed that there is one particular online abbreviation that we're no longer using which highlights how our relationship with social media has changed - the term "brb" (be right back) for when you had to momentarily leave your computer.

At the end of last year, a post went viral on X which included an image of an early-2000s desktop and it gave people the ultimate nostalgia.

There was one particularly depressing point that was made by a user who noted how the internet previously was a "single, solitary, unmoving place instead of a terror that extends to everywhere".

He added: "You went to this specific spot to go to the internet. when you left the spot, you left the internet."

Due to the advancements in technology and the rise of social media over the last two decades, you can go on the internet pretty much anywhere so it's no longer a space you can leave, instead it's now a constant in our lives.

The post received nearly 12 million views and 353,000 likes and topic also reached TikTok where @arca.so shared the original tweet and expressed that there are benefits to the internet we're used to now but also highlighted how vital time offline is which can be trickier these days.

In the video with 840,000 views, one user made an interesting point that we no longer use the abbreviation "brb" meaning "be right back," a term used often when having to leave the computer for a moment.

However, this slang is no longer used as the internet has extended into our lives in a way that we're only a tap away.

"We used to say brb. We don't anymore. We live here now," the user wrote.

(A more accurate abbreviation for internet usage nowadays would be "FAAO" (Forever and always online)).

While more people who remember the bygone days of accessing the internet by the family computer alone recalled their memories.

One person said: "I'm so old that I used to just play with paint on the computer. There wasn’t even internet."

"I would come home from school just to jump on MSN messenger to then chat with my friends who I’ve been with all day at school. This brings back a lot of memories," another person wrote.

Someone else added: "We used to go INTO, and out of, the internet. Now it’s all around us, inescapable."

"Internet is our third space now. We’re not locals at coffee shops or bars like earlier generations before (bc we can’t afford it) so we settled on this," a fourth person commented.

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