What Does TTYL Mean?
TTYL is a tech-free community dedicated to human connection. But what does TTYL mean?
by Liana Pavane, LookUp Youth Advisory Council and Founder of TTYL
TTYL stands for “talk to you later” and is an acronym that gained a lot of popularity in the 90s. Millennials would most often use TTYL while chatting on AIM--basically the 90s version of Slack. For those of you in a younger generation (or an older one!), one would typically write TTYL when signing off from a conversation. It was our shorthand, digital way of saying goodbye when leaving the internet.
So why did Liana Pavane, TTYL’s founder and digital wellness expert, name her company after the 90s acronym? Well, Liana is a child of the 90s and grew up watching the rise of technology throughout her childhood. When considering the concept for her brand, the TTYL meaning felt nostalgic (and that’s what Liana was feeling as she traveled through young adulthood). When she came up with TTYL name, she wanted her brand to have the same feeling of comfort and play that came with a childhood without digital.
When you come to TTYL, you must check your electronics at the door—don’t worry they are safely guarded—to ensure that you have the headspace to make the best human connections possible. We avoid digital FOMO at all costs. TTYL events are the time you get to focus on yourself and decompress from the digital world.
TTYL events welcome friends as well as those looking to make new ones (so feel free to come alone)! When it comes to not knowing what to do without your phone? Don’t worry. Each event has things like board games, coloring, and Play Doh to fill the space in your hands that your phone usually occupies. Plus, no one else is on theirs either, so there’s automatically less pressure.
Every event has a theme, such as self-care or in-person dating, and includes curated activations dedicated to the specific evening. On top of all those wonderful childhood activities, there might also be a singer performing, a tarot reader looking into your future, or a new conversation card game that’ll make a room full of strangers into friends. What does all of that have to do with the TTYL meaning?
Well, when you step into a TTYL event, it’s like telling the little world that lives on your phone that you’ll literally talk to them later. When you participate in a TTYL pop-up, it’s like stepping back into your childhood when fun existed off of the internet. What does TTYL mean? It means being an active participant in your life, creating boundaries, and reconnecting with human connection.
If you’re nostalgic for your childhood or curious about what it would be like to have a better relationship with your technology, TTYL is the perfect space for you to do just that. And if you walk away with a new friend in the process, that’s just the perk of real human connection.
Visit www.ttylnyc.com for tech-free bliss.
