The Atlantic

There Is Only One Thing IMHO Can Mean

And it ain’t “in my honest opinion.”
Source: Katie Martin / The Atlantic

Those lovable scoundrels at BuzzFeed, as they are wont to do, have kicked up a new controversy about the breakdown of our shared reality in this time of dislocation and doubt. They have asked people to settle, via internet poll, what the correct meaning of IMHO is.

If you, like me, grew up on the bulletin-board systems (BBSs) and forums thatIt has always been this way. Though “in my humble opinion” is a phrase people through history, its current prevalence seems to have originated online. This acronym is a part of the ironic ur-voice of internet communication, honed on Usenet forums about VHS tapes () and other nerdy arcana.

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