Once upon a time, the youth was focused on writing the correct spellings in their lessons. They would use the right words and phrases for the right situations and get good grades in their English examination. Life was easy. But then, social media was introduced, and everything changed!

The social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram have made it a point to boost their creativity, not merely in posting unique videos or photos but also in generating their own vocabulary of slangs, phrases, and abbreviations.

TikTok lingo keeps expanding, and a new slang word is introduced every other day. Some users understand their meaning, while others take their own sweet time in decoding them. In the most recent examples, two abbreviations, /HJ and /J, are making rounds everywhere on the social media platform.

Want to know what /hj and /j mean? We have tried to decode.

All the cool kids are using both these abbreviations in writing their posts on TikTok.

Basically, this millennial abbreviation can be decoded as ‘joking’ and ‘half-joking’.

While /J stands for joking, /HJ denotes half-joking.

Users are generally using this shorthand so that people would know they are being sarcastic and things they are writing and posting are not so serious. This tone is just a way of indicating nothing is serious during online interactions.

Once upon a time, the users would JK, which stands for just kidding. It was used to acknowledge something in a very light-hearted way. Similarly, both these abbreviations are used nowadays to highlight the same. Their use suggests that you do not wish to offend someone.

These terms are used by Gen Z and TikTokers at the end of the comments or even in a video’s caption. By using them, not only do the users save time and effort, but ensure their intention is making its way across clearly to reduce the chance of misunderstandings.

As /HJ stands for half-joking, it is usually used to indicate that while a statement is mostly a joke, there is still some portion of truth to it. Thus, the users use it as a tone indicator. Here is a clear example.

I love you, Eliot. /hj.

(This statement will confuse Eliot, we promise)

While these abbreviations may be fun to use and tease around, they can also leave the users on the social media platform perplexed. It is because there are too many slangs, words, and abbreviations to register. Many a time, users would often get confused about which one to use and how! The context, therefore, is more than essential.

If you know, you know.

Besides TikTok, /HJ and /J have become equally popular on Twitter. The half-joking slang is gaining the attention of many users to share tweets efficiently and clearly and avoid confusion.

For instance, if you want to post a tweet to be perceived in several ways, you can add /HJ or /J at the end. The people will understand the tweet is meant to be funny.

Understanding how to use these slang words and correctly using them in your tweet to highlight jokes and sarcasm will let you enjoy social media platforms even more.