“When I see LOL attached to a text message, I get actually mad. Because I know they aren’t really laughing, it just feels really disingenuous,” said senior communications major Sean Carroll. He is not alone.
Plenty of people are sick of LOL.
“I only use LOL when I’m talking to my parents or older people. The term just feels like it’s made for an older generation, and it comes in handy when I want to use a laughing acronym but LMAO would be inappropriate for the situation,” said Teni Jehanian, a senior education major.
LOL is one of the oldest bits of Internet slang dating back to the 1980s. Its first documented use came from a man named Wayne Pearson, who typed “LOL” in an early version of a chatroom.
After its inception, the internet gave LOL a platform where people began widely substituting laughter with the term. LOL went on to become so popular that it was officially added to Webster’s English Dictionary in 2011.
Due to its popularity and longevity on the internet, those who have digitally messaged at all have most likely used LOL at some point from old generations to new, but while many have used it, the definition of LOL can often be skewed based on what the user believes as its meaning.
“I’ll never forget a friend of mine was trying to send condolences for someone whose mother had recently passed away. When sending their text message, they chose to put LOL at the end of it, as they thought it stood for lots of love,” Neumann Professor Joe Glass recalls.
Even the most frequent texters have begun to use LOL in ways that were not initially intended. “I do feel like my friend group uses it a lot, but we use it next to something either honest or uncomfortable to make it seem less extreme,” said junior biology major Rachel Straub.
However, many students say that they either don’t use the term LOL at all, or that when they do it’s used ironically, so despite its longevity the end might be near for LOL.
“I very rarely use it anymore. It’s definitely outdated, and I hate saying it personally,” said senior nursing major Emma Schneider.
“I don’t use it much. I actually find myself using the laughing emoji way more, I would say it’s going more outdated and not a lot of people use it,” said senior nursing major Kaitlyn Smith.
While future trends of any kind are difficult to predict, it looks like the Neumann student body no longer has lots of love for LOL.
