You may have seen the acronym WYD used in a text message or on social media and wondered what it meant. If so, you’ve come to the right place. We’ll explain the meaning and origin of the acronym WYD.
What Does WYD Mean?
The term “WYD” is a normal texting abbreviation that means “what are you doing.” It is typically been used as a question. The term is a good way in texting to get someone to say what they are doing in the current time. Unlike the term “What you’ve been up to”, it is asking the person what they are doing in the current time. Here’s the WYD meaning and its history.
The History of the Term “WYD”
To this day, no one really knows about how the term came about. What everyone knows however is that the term came to existence on Urban Dictionary back in 2009. But over time, ever since many people have gotten a cell phone in their hands, more people ever since 2009 have been using the term.
And because the term “WYD” is not a hashtag, it is virtually impossible to get accurate details based on the number of people who use the term. On the internet, you can find many things such as memes. It is possible to say that people have been introduced to the term over the course of the many years that the term WYD has been in existence.
So How Can the Term WYD Be Used?
Usually, the term WYD is used to get a conversation-starting through text. Compared to the term HMY or hit me up, WYD is always used informally when talking to people. It is inappropriate to use the word in a professional setting as it is not the way that you should type out the word to a boss, co-worker, or teacher.
Alongside the use of it in text, people can use it in conversation to get someone to say something that they are going to do for example, after work.
Take a look at this conversation:
Situation: Person and A and B are co-workers who have both finished their shifts at work in the office. They both are going out and heading out of the building.
Person A: “So what are you doing for dinner?”
Person B: “Oh, I’m thinking of hitting a local place and then heading home.”
Person A: “Mind if I join?”
Person B: “Sure, let’s get going then.”
The phrase and term can be both used to get a conversation going from both text and conversation. Here in this instance, Person A is getting a conversation going with Person B.
Here are some other text examples of what you could say in-text conversations:
Situation: In the instance that you are texting a friend.
Sent to Friend: Yo dude, WYD today? It is definitely a good day to go out and hoop.
(Hoop is another term that just means to play basketball)
On a live-streaming platform such as Twitch:
Hey Rice, WYD with your channel on YouTube? You haven’t posted a video in a while!
(Rice aka. Ricegum aka. Bryan Le is a YouTuber turned Twitch streamer that has been known for doing diss tracks back in 2016-2018.)
On an app such as Snapchat:
So WYD later? Wanna hang?
Situation: In this instance, the friend just wants to know what his/her friend is doing later.
Who is using the term WYD today?
WYD can be used by many people who have grown up knowing the terms and acronyms. Really, the people who use the word tend to be from a younger group of people.
What was used before the term WYD?
When WYD was not a term that was used as much, people were mainly saying the whole phrase or saying something else. Some of the examples are:
“what are you doing?”
“what’s up?”
“what’s going on?”
These are used too, but WYD is the phrase that many people are using nowadays.
