A Guide to KYS: Meaning and Examples

A Guide to KYS : Meaning and Examples

Online lingo can travel at lighting speed and a brief set of letters can be very heavy. An example of such acronym is KYS, which is found in chat rooms, comment boards, and game lobbies. This guide tells you what it normally entails, where it is applied, why it is bad and what to do when you come across it.

What does KYS mean?

KYS meaning is kill yourself. It is an abusive/harassing term that is used to humiliate, embarrass, or injure the feelings of another person. Some extremely uncommon and contextualized instances may exist where people in certain niche professional environments can use the same letters as an innocent shortcut (such as in niche-based work discussion forums saying know your stuff), but over the internet the prevailing meaning is to injure themselves.

Where you’ll see it

KYS appears in:

Gamers chat competitive when they lose their tempers (KYS noob).

Trolling on anonymous comment sections or forums.

Chat rooms in which one is being bullied or targeted.

Why it’s harmful

Applying pressure to kill oneself to a person is explicit influence towards committing self-inflicted injury and it should be traumatizing to the sufferer. It adds to the unfriendly internet culture and may cause individuals who already have a problem with mental health. Even in its non-violent manner of flipping, it becomes normalized to use violent language and harassment.

Examples (and why they are a problem)

KYS, you are no good at this game.-- harassment; intended to degrade and intimidate.

“All in that chat said KYS to her. everything in the chat reinforced the harm; it made the harm worse.

“KYS (lol).” normalization by means of joking; still dangerous as it trivides self-harm.

What to do when you come across KYS

Don’t encourage or mirror it. An act of aggression tends to escalate a situation.

Report and block. Trade platform tools to inform about abusive messages and block the sender. This is the reason why moderation systems exist.

Support the target. When another person is telling you KYS, be a spy: sneak a peep at them and ask them to check they are all right. Do you want to talk?” can matter.

Document evidence. When the harassment is constant, make sure to take screenshots (when it is safe) then report.

Use community rules. When reporting or requesting moderators to do something, refer to platform/community guidelines.

Final note

Language shapes culture. Online spaces can be made safer by calling and reporting on “KYS” behavior. In the case of writing or moderating online communities add explicit guidelines against promoting self-harm and simplify reporting. and should any of this get too close to home or any of you or those around you, then please contact a friend, loved one, or professional that you trust - help is there.

Source: Radarro.com