Living in An LOL-Hole

The whole world is crazy, giddy I dare say, with LOL. We love that acronym, and when you think about it, it’s really great. But we need to take back the meaning, Laughing Out Loud. Better yet, we need to restore meaning to this most venerable three-letter guffaw by stopping its abuse.

I know what you’re saying; “Abuse? I don’t abuse it.” Yes you do. We’re all guilty.

Think about it. How many times a day, during work or something, do you find yourself chatting on Facebook, or IMing someone about current events? You slide a pretty decent joke, or some witty commentary into the exchange, and all you get back is, “LOL.”

That wouldn’t be so bad, but the other person is sitting right across from you, and they clearly are not “LOL-ing.”

I don’t know about you, but most of the times when I use LOL, I’m not even smiling, let alone laughing out loud. And if I’m genuinely laughing, I’m probably not thinking about writing anything. Let me enjoy my laugh.

Still don’t believe me? OK, wise guy. How many times have you written, “I’m actually laughing out loud over here,” when someone rips off a good one during an IM session? Thought so! What do you think that means? It’s an acknowledgement of how diluted, and in many cases false, LOL has become.

LOL has really come to mean, “I know that was a joke, it was mildly funny, now leave me alone.”

It’s a shame, really. It’s this dance we dance with our fancy acronyms. ROFL, LMAO, and the grand ROFLMAO fall under the same sad abuse.

But all is not lost. We can take them back. Let’s drag these acronyms, and ourselves, out of this LOL Hellhole, by only using LOL when we’re actually Laughing Out Loud. Oh, and please stop saying LOL in casual conversation. It’s unnecessary. We must know when to separate computer speak from actual conversation. Is everyone with me?