When was the last time you typed the letters "LOL." It's been a while, hasn't it? Well, that's for a good reason. You see, Facebook users have stopped using LOL in favor of other forms of e-laughter like "hahahaha" and emoji. My friends, I have sad news: LOL is dead.
A Facebook survey titled The Not So Universal Language of Laughter found that the most popular way to express mirth is with "haha" followed by an emoji and "hehe." Only a tiny fraction of users still go with LOL -- 1.9 percent. OMG! (Which, P.S., continues to thrive.)
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"Lol" is out. “Haha” and emoji are in, according to Facebook data. http://t.co/NAgyRz3HUQpic.twitter.com/JXMRyHycy8
— Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) August 10, 2015And so, dearly beloved, we are gathered here to pay our final tribute of respect to that which was relevant of our deceased loved one and friend, LOL.
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An acronym for "laugh out loud," it is believed that LOL was born in the mid 1980s in a BBS chatroom called Viewline in Canada. Others say LOL emerged in a "FidoNews" newsletter in 1989. Users were thrilled to finally be able to express, in shorthand, enthusiastic laughter. Because having to write out "oh my gosh that is so dang funny I wish you could hear how loud I am laughing right now for verily great peals of laughter are coming out of my mouth at this moment" is a great pain in the butt.
Our friend LOL grew stronger with the rise of email and text messaging. It was in the age of Twitter and Facebook that LOL reached its true maturity. But then came the backlash.
People began to complain that users were not literally laughing out loud when they wrote those letters. LOL's integrity was questioned. The acronym became associated with annoying numbskulls with little imagination and tiny vocabularies. Thus began LOL's sad decline in health.
But who were we to judge LOL? Who among us hasn't relied on a lazy cliché out of fatigue, apathy, or carpal tunnel syndrome? Is it LOL we should condemn, or it is ourselves? DID WE KILL LOL?
Let us not scapegoat this cheery, well-meaning acronym for our own dunderheadedness. Instead, let us remember LOL in its prime. That time your cousin posted a truly funny photograph on Facebook, for once. Your all-night chat marathon with that guy you met on MySpace. And LOL's many hilarious collaborations with cats.
Let us remember the good times we enjoyed with LOL. It never meant any harm. It was here, simply, to reflect our own hilarity. And for that reason, we honor it.
LOL is survived by LMAO and ROFL (which, let's face it, are not long for this world themselves) and by the inexplicably enduring LOLZ.
Image via Kzenon/shutterstock