Updated February 16, 2023
Full Form of TBH (To Be Honest)
Full form of TBH is “To Be Honest”. These days the internet is full of huge slang and jargon. It becomes a difficult task for parents to understand these GenZ languages as they use short forms. For instance, words like LOL stands for Laugh out loud. Similarly, TBH is a commonly used word amongst the young generation.
Due to the vast advancement of social media, kids these days are smart enough to use acronyms in chatting. The word TBH which is an acronym for, to be honest, is easy to use while chatting on social media. Moreover, to be direct and express a strong opinion for oneself TBH is commonly used. However, in traditional or dictionary methods of English learning the word honesty has a meaning indicating the quality of being kind or honest.
Reason for Using TBH on Social Media
Digital and social media platforms are growing tremendously. Millions of users are using different social media apps to get connected to various people all over the world. The main reason behind this is networking. Therefore, to develop the networking process, teens are using advanced slang and languages.
The teens also use the word TBH on their social media especially on Instagram and Twitter so that their best friends or close connections write good things about them. Use of TBH in the year 2018-19 on Instagram. The primary reason for using this word on the pictures posted on the user’s story was to gain the attention of the audience.
For instance, when a user had posted a story with the TBH tab, his/her followers can write or give their honest opinion about the users. On the other hand, the user can re-post the TBH opinions with their specific follower name and picture for engagement purposes. This was also a great way for engaging the target audience.
During the COVID lockdown, people were stuck at home. Hence for entertainment purposes, people played the game of TBH widely on social media platforms. It helped many people to gain huge followers.
Origin
Although the GenZ jargon “TBH” got its official importance through social media during 2018-19. After TBH’s popularity, Instagram users have also used other trends like polls and reels. Similar to Instagram, Facebook also introduced the same story features later on for more audience engagement purposes.
Common Examples to Use TBH
There is no specfic way of using TBH. Moreover while writing you can either write TBH in all capital letters or even in small letters like tbh. Both are correct ways.
For example – “Tbh I’m not gonna lie”, “Tbh today the weather is better than yesterday” etc are a few examples of how GenZ use their sentence construction while causally chatting on social media. Although the usage of tbh started in the 90s rarely people have used them in their daily routines.
Few Other Social Media Trendy Lingos
Social lingos are especially the short forms of words used by people on social media platforms. People use these terms to save time and chat faster. The main reason behind this is chatting consumes more time than verbal communication. Again, other than social media platforms, people also use a few social media slang while sending emails. For instance, TLDR- Too Long Didn’t Read.
Here is a list of lingo that people use in social chatting:
- FOMO: Fear of missing out
- NGL: Not gonna lie
- Fyi: For your information
- TLDR: Too long didn’t read
- DM: Direct message
- PM: Private message
- RW: This refers to re-tweeting the posts on Twitter
Conclusion – Full Form of TBH
With time and technological progress, every new day a new social app or software develops. Networking among people should grow more in this era of the digital world. The social media lingos might be difficult for parents to understand but at times these are fun. You can surely use tbh and other social media languages while talking casually with your friends.