Age/sex/location
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Age/sex/location" (commonly A/S/L, asl or ASL) is an article of Internet slang used in instant messaging programs and in Internet chatrooms. It is used as a question to find out the age, sex (gender), and general location of the person one is talking to.
When the Internet was first introduced to the general public, IRC, or chatting online, was considered a huge phenomenon as people had the ability to communicate with complete strangers from anywhere in the world in real time. The excitement of sending one line of text via the computer and receiving a response from someone (who could be computer or human) in an unknown location—potentially anywhere on earth—prompted many to be curious about the people who responded, as they often used nondescript monikers.
Internet chatting came to be seen as having a social function, a place where people could meet, and hopefully become friends, or become involved romantically. Some saw chatting as a large and international dating service. Thus, one of the most common questions people had for a complete stranger, other than his/her name or appearance, would be their age, sex, and location. Asking each question individually proved to be a cumbersome task for many computer users. Hence, the questions are simplified to a single "ASL?", which is today an abbreviation generally understood by many. Often the answer comes in the order of the abbreviation, separated by slashes, such as "47/m/Bamako, Mali" or "24/f/MI".
In many well-established online communities in the present day however, use of this acronym is often frowned upon and viewed as a sign of clear inexperience. Asking for such information can be considered mildly offensive on specialist sites, or where such information is otherwise determinable in profiles or pre-made introductory threads. This is especially true on instant messaging programs (such as Yahoo Messenger or AIM) where it is often considered very rude to say "asl" (especially if the profile has been filled out and/or it's the first thing a person says in conversation). The abbreviation is also frequently used to satirize "n00b" personae or in related trolling methods to hound outsiders and is usually followed by blocking the person.
