What Does /j Mean on Social Media?

/j (Slash J) Meaning

/j is a tone indicator that means “joking.” It’s often used on social media and in text to indicate that what’s been said shouldn’t be taken seriously. Users will sometimes follow up an insincere or joking statement with “/j” to signify to readers that they’re speaking in jest. /j is similar in function to /s, which stands for “sarcastic.” It’s snowing really hard here. I sure hope they get the roads plowed so school isn’t canceled… /j

How to Use /j

Use /j when chatting over text to convey you’re just kidding. While it’s often easier to tell if someone is joking or being sarcastic in person by their tone, it’s hard to convey tone in print or text. Tone indicators like /j are an effective way to let people know what you’re writing is just a joke and meant to be taken with a grain of salt. Next time you want to be sarcastic or jokey on Twitter or Reddit, or over text, make sure your audience knows how to read your tone by ending your comment with “/j.” She broke up with the guy who cheated on her? Didn’t see that coming! /j

What is a tone indicator?

A tone indicator is a symbol attached to a message sent in text form. For instance, a tone indicator (also called a tone tag) may be appended to a text message, email, or social media post to let the reader know how they should read your tone. It’s often easier to pick up on tone in face-to-face verbal interactions, but via print or text only, it can be much more difficult to tell if someone is joking. Tone indicators usually take the form of a letter or series of letters preceded by a forward slash—e.g., “/srs” (serious) or “/s” (sarcastic). Everyone can benefit from tone indicators online, but they can be especially helpful for neurodivergent people, especially autistic people, who may have extra difficulty interpreting tone or picking up on sarcasm. That said, tone indicators aren’t only used for sarcastic content; there are tone indicators to mark all sorts of tones that may be difficult for readers to pick up on, such as romantic (“/r”) or genuine (“/g”).

Tone indicators have been around for centuries. The most popular tone indicator—“/s”—has been around for years and stems from “,” a parody of an XML closing tag. However, tone indicators generally have been used for centuries: as print became more popular, so did the need for a symbol to indicate when someone wasn’t being sincere. Early tone indicators included the percontation point (⸮), a backwards question mark to indicate a rhetorical question, which was proposed by Henry Denham in the 1580s but which died out in the 1700s, and the emoticon “:-)” to indicate a joke (and “:-(“ to indicate something was sincere).

Other Popular Tone Indicators

There are lots of other tone indicators to help you clarify your tone in text. Whether you’re sending a text message or posting on Twitter, you don’t want your message to come across the wrong way or be misinterpreted. Check out this list of popular tone indicators to make sure your message always comes out just right: /s (“sarcasm”) /srs (“serious”) /g (“genuine”) /ij (“inside joke”) /romantic (“romantic”) /hj (“half-joking”) /nsrs (“not serious”) /pos or /pc (“positive” or “positive connotation”) /neu (“neutral”) /neg or /nc (“negative” or “negative connotation”) /p (“platonic”) /c (“copy pasta”) /l (“lyrics”) /lh (“light-hearted”) /nm (“not mad”) /nsb (“not sub-tweeting”) (that is, not passive-aggressively posting about anyone specific) /sx or /x (“sex” or “sexual intent”) /nsx (“non-sexual intent”) /t (“teasing”) /cb (“clickbait”) /li (“literally”)