Are you a MOUSE POTATO, someone who practically lives in front of the computer? Or are you a TECHNOPHOBE, someone nervous about new technology?

Luckily, most computer words are easy to learn because many of them are so colourful. They are words that often make us smile when we first hear them such as SNAIL MAIL (traditional post rather than Internet-based mail). To get a feeling for computer words, it helps to understand the world that created them, CYBERCULTURE, as it is often called.

Computer words often give the impression of certain playfulness, even humour. Take EMOTICON¸ for example, formed from emotion and icon, which are also called SMILEYS. They are combinations of symbols such as :) that people attach to their messages in order to express feelings.

To be fair, cyberculture also laughs at itself. Those who spend all their time in front of their computers are called COMPUTER GEEKS and, for the younger generation, SCREENAGERS.

Internet communication has a definite style of its own and it is often highly colloquial. To make their Internet writing seem more informal, people use abbreviations, such as B4 meaning "before" or GR8 meaning "Great!!".

The article above has been adapted for this practice activity from Dr Ingrid Meyer's article, University of Ottawa, Canada, and published in Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners. Please, click on the image to visit Macmillan Publishers wide variety of dictionaries ...