YT

An abbreviation for YouTube, a popular video-sharing site; created in 2005 by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim; bought by Google in 2006; features different sorts of videos such as vlogs, music videos, songs, amateur videos, and even full length movies.

On TikTok, users often use the abbreviation yt to refer to white people. TikTokers may use yt in place of "whitey" or just "white." The abbreviation can be used pejoratively, for brevity, or both.

While yt's origin is unknown, the reasons it became popular are not. When sounded out, y-t sounds almost exactly like "whitey." The abbreviation also allows users to save space in their character-limited TikTok posts and skirt some of TikTok's race-related regulations.

Originally, yt meant only "whitey," but it has since morphed to also stand for "white." For example, you might see a TikToker refer to "yt people" in a post. (And if you do, the TikToker is likely not referring to YouTube people.)

In online gaming and chat sessions, YT sometimes stands for "your turn." This acronym signals that it's your turn to play or talk.

However, because YT has several other meanings, gamers and chatters use this acronym infrequently. For the same reason, you may also see YT written as y/t, to set it apart from other versions of YT.

Have you been AFK for a while? If so, YT? likely stands for "You there?"

You might receive YT? out of the blue, when someone wants to start a conversation with you. You may also receive it in the middle of a conversation, if you've stepped away or paused long enough that the person you're talking to thinks you're ignoring them.

Either way, when someone sends you YT?, they probably have something to say to you. So if you respond, be prepared to have a lengthy chat.