Kevin
March 6, 2021
Common Questions
Do you know what the internet slang term IDEK means? This article will provide you with all of the necessary knowledge on the acronym IDEK, including its definition, usage, useful examples, and more!
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According to Dictionary, the internet slang term IDEK stands for “I Don’t Even Know.” This acronym is popular in text messaging and on social media sites including Snapchat, Twitter, and Instagram. This phrase is used to express ignorance, or puzzlement over something inexplicable.
However, given recent circumstances one should be careful when using the abbreviation IDEK on the platform Venmo. According to their website, Venmo is an application that allows people to pay and request money from others. People often use this when they are splitting a bill with someone and do not have cash or physical bills on them. Venmo could be used to split a lunch bill, rent, utilities bills, or any other situation in which two or more people need to split a payment. Some stores even accept Venmo as a form of payment.
However, recently, according to The Verge, a number of transactions have been flagged by Venmo when users put “IDEK” as the description of the transaction. These transactions were put on hold for four days while the company was reviewing the transactions. They explained why with the following quote: “Federal regulations require that we screen payments for restricted goods and entities. The payment note mentions a restricted good or entity, so we have to review the payment.” In short, the company needs to ensure that these transactions are not violating any sort of federal law.
However, the term IDEK may be setting off Venmo’s scanners because it is also an acronym for a radical Islamic organization in Bangladesh called “Islami Dawat-e-Kafela,” which is another name for “Harakat Ul-Jihad-i-Islami.” The bots might flag the transactions labeled IDEK because it looks like it could be funding terrorism. Some other phrases in the past have also flagged Venmo’s system in similar ways.
The popular slang acronym IDEK can be used in many different circumstances via text messaging, instant messaging or over social media. In this first example, IDEK is going to be used to show commiseration between two people who are texting. In this first example, Nina and Jen are talking about their English class from earlier that day.
Nina: I truly can’t believe Ms. Reinerman failed the whole class. That’s like, ridiculous.
Jen: IDEK dude, she’s been on something lately. None of us can do anything right!
Nina: I know! I worked so hard on that essay and she still said it was terrible. What do we do?
Jen: I feel like we have to talk to our parents about this. If we get enough people together, maybe they can go to the administration. I don’t want to get her in trouble, but I’m worried for all of us.
Nina: I agree.
Here, Jen uses IDEK to show Nina that she feels just as lost as Nina does, and uses it to commiserate with her and show empathy. In this next example, Nina is texting with her mom about the situation.
Mom: So she just failed all of you for no reason? That doesn’t make any sense.
Nina: IDEK! She just said that none of us were meeting her standard, and that we were all going to fail when we got to college so we need to get used to failing now. I worked really hard on it.
Mom: That’s ridiculous. Send me the essay. And I’m calling Jen’s mom.
There are many different words and phrases one can use in place of the trending term IDEK. Some of these are also acronyms, which can be used in similar contexts to the phrase IDEK. Some of these are phrases which can be used in more professional or formal circumstances, or when one is speaking aloud and does not want to use an acronym. These are listed below from 7 ESL, MacMillan Thesaurus and Word Hippo Thesaurus.
Overall, the internet slang word IDEK stands for “I don’t even know.” This phrase is used to let someone else know that the speaker is unaware or uncertain on a topic that has been brought up in conversation. This is a very casual acronym that should be reserved for use in casual conversation between friends via SMS text messaging or on social media, and should never be used in professional or formal settings.
