March 7, 2011 By MARTHA IRVINE, AP National Writer
I stumbled upon this article while surfing the Internet and it instantly caught my eye. What could someone have possibly written about such a simple phrase I use so often? I had no idea what to expect. However, the article turned out to be incredibly interesting and presented a different perspective on today’s technological lingo. It aimed to explain the growing annoyance and persistence of the commonly – and possibly excessively – used term LOL (laugh out loud). Some thought it was juvenile or a “high school thing” that only teenage girls say. While others feel they use the term because they “just grew up with it.” Either way you look at it, one cannot deny the fact that it has become an integral part in the way we communicate today. I believe that LOL can hold many different meanings and is completely subjective to the individual.
So where did the expression come from? The article notes the acronyms fuzzy and fairly unknown origins. What the author does assume is that the expression was probably formed in the 1980s on some early Internet message board by gamers or hackers. And with the growth of the Internet age in the 1990s, it went mainstream, showing up in chat rooms and instant messaging sites. It continued to grow and evolve as time went on. New versions of the acronym such as LMAO (“Laughing My A** Off”) and ROFL (“Rolling On the Floor Laughing”) began to pop up. However by 2004 people were finally beginning to get tired of the phrase. It was placed on the “List of Words to be Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-Use, Over-Use, and general Uselessness.” Despite it’s place on the ban list, it continues to persist even today.
The article was extremely amusing. I literally “laughed out loud” at some of the comments and references. Almost every person today – at least all people of the developed world that utilize cell phones and the Internet – can relate to this in one way or another. It is something that we type and say so often that it’s not even thought about anymore.
I also found it funny when the article pointed out the fact that it has become so commonplace that we say it even when we don’t actually laugh. I must admit I am guilty of this act from time to time. I hadn’t thought of how many times I may exagerate to the person I am texting or messaging just out of convenience. It’s quicker. With limited time and text messaging characters, who wants to explain how they’re really feeling or reacting? Three little letters are able to convey so much more than you would think.
I think the most interesting about LOL is when people use that phrase in real conversations. Its funny in the sense that it cannot be a good evolution if we are beginning to use such simple acronyms in our daily conversations. Its making our vocab weaker.
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