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I see 情弱乙 being used (as an interjection?) on many websites, but I can't find it in any dictionary, even online dictionaries. I guess the pronunciation is じょうじゃくおつ. What does it mean?

Examples:

情弱乙！

ガラケーｗｗｗ情弱乙ｗｗｗ

情弱乙と呼ばれないために
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+1, good example of a translation question! – Amanda S Jul 7 '11 at 6:05
how is it a good translation example when the first google hit gives you an answer? (just needs to translate the page) Sometimes you get me confused... – repecmps Jul 7 '11 at 7:15
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@repecmps: I scanned the first two pages of Google results and could not detect any dictionary website in the URLs. By looking closely, now I see that the first link, despite being on nicovideo, is in fact indeed a dictionary. Sorry about that. – Nicolas Raoul Jul 7 '11 at 7:29
Nicolas provided a context and examples for the word he wanted translated, and mentioned that he had already tried and failed to find it in several dictionaries. Good scope, good examples, and due diligence make a translation question much easier to answer well, and I appreciate that! – Amanda S Jul 7 '11 at 7:45
As been said many times in Meta, 'easiness' of answer, or even the fact that the asker knows the answer when asking, should not matter (especially while we are in beta period and trying to build a good momentum)... As long as the question is relevant and interesting. I think this question is both. +1 – Dave♦ Jul 8 '11 at 1:32

2 Answers

up vote 14 down vote accepted

It is an internet slang, not a standard Japanese word.

情弱 (joojyaku) is short for 情報弱者 (joohoojyakusha) 'information shortfall', people who are left behind by the advancement of information technology.

乙 (otsu) comes from お疲れさま (otsukaresama) literaly '(you are) tired (after the hard work)', in this case ironically and looking down. Close to the English phrase 'nice try' used ironically. 乙 is totally unrelated to お疲れさま but is used because of the similarity of pronouncitation.

Anyway, this term is a slang that probably originated from the notorious internet BBS 2ch, and is used offensively to look down on people who are left behind from the internet trend. It is not an appreciated word.

It may be comparable to another slang from 2ch: ググレカス (gugurekasu) 'google it, you shit!', which derives from ググれ　かす (imperative form of ググる (guguru) 'to google' + garbage).

By the way, the character w in www stands for 笑い (warai) 'laughter', whose English counterpart is 'lol', and is enforcing the magnitude of looking down on the person.

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Does 情報弱者 really correspond to “information shortfall”? I did not know this English phrase, but according to web search, “information shortfall” seems to refer to the lack or insufficiency of information, and does not seem to refer to the meaning of 情報弱者 (although one may claim that these two meanings are vaguely related). – Tsuyoshi Ito Jul 8 '11 at 17:13
@Tsuyoshi_Ito Actually, I didn't know the English phrase either. I took it from the website that I linked, but didn't think it's problematic. Should I change it to 'person in information shortfall'? I think the meaning of '弱者' is expressed within the word 'shortfall'. Or maybe I can simply remove that word, keeping the 'people who are ...' part. What do you think? – sawa Jul 8 '11 at 17:36
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I do not know what the best action is (after all, this is your answer), but without further input, I do not believe that “information shortfall” corresponds to 情報弱者. For example, in this article, the English phrase means the insufficiency of the information provided by mass media, and it does not refer to the difference depending on recipients. – Tsuyoshi Ito Jul 8 '11 at 18:27
up vote 7 down vote

Chiebukuro says that 情弱乙（じょうじゃくおつ）is short for 情報弱者.

What is a 情報弱者?

Chiebukuro has you covered again; it refers to a person on the wrong side of the digital divide, someone whose access to the internet is severely limited or nonexistent. It can also refer to someone who is out of touch with current events, or as an insult to someone who has asked a question they should know the answer to, or without doing basic research--like we might say in English, "What, you don't have access to Google or something?"

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It is true that 情弱 stands for 情報弱者, but a person who explains 情弱乙 as 情報弱者, ignoring 乙, is careless at best. It is not your fault, but we should not trust a random webpage without examining it. – Tsuyoshi Ito Jul 7 '11 at 15:01

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