Photo Credit: MarcoMaru from morguefile.com

Young people are now employing a raft of new abbreviations for their social media discussions.

New abbreviations, words and phrases are now being communicated all around the world through social media and its users. But it is only going to get longer and more complicated.

Many of the new meanings have grown from simple days of LOL (Laughing Out Loud) abbreviation to a list as long as 60 characters.

And the social media savvy are now employing them in every day communication.

Users using these abbreviations use it for speed and communicating easier, a university professor on linguistics said, while others just choose to do use it because it is a code that almost no one can detect by just looking at it.

WeAreSocial.com.au managing director Julian Ward said there are various shortcuts, which range from the compassionate ILY (I Love You) to the more profane WTF (What the F***). They are all a commonplace now and indicate the changing way people harness social media.