I can say with conviction that this term predates the internet. My junior high days (this probably dates me) the expressions and "BFF" (or its shortened version F/F for friends forever) "j/k," "KIT" peppered all our notebooks and yearbooks. I imagine that most yearbooks from the early 90s onwards would be abound with these expressions, however I grew up in southern California and am unsure if these terms were in common use throughout the country at the same time. In the Urban Dictionary, the earliest entry for BFF comes from 2001. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bff -lilly On Sep 30, 2007, at 11:12 PM, Jimmy Wales wrote:
NANCY MCDONALD-KNWRTHY wrote:
"Best Friends Forever" from a South Park tv show episode:
The abbreviation is older than that episode, which aired in March 2005, though: Cyber bullies stalking online playground.
Candy J. Cooper The Record (Bergen County, N.J.) Apr. 21, 2004 10:45 AM
"Conflict escalates quickly online, where facial expression and voice intonation are replaced by "jk," for just kidding, or "lol," for laughing out loud. Matters are complicated when two "bff's," or best friends forever in cyber-slang, share one another's passwords, as girls often do. When the falling-out comes, they can wreak havoc by sending damaging messages everywhere - with their new enemy's name attached. "
I have no idea how much older it might be than that. _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http:// listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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Lilly Nguyen PhD Student, Dept. of Information Studies lillynguyen@ucla.edu aim: deuxlits