Why do you think it is that some people end written sentences with "lol," even when it's completely out of context and they didn't say anything remotely funny?
They do it almost like a sign off and it drives me nuts lol.
I wonder if they even realize they’re doing it lol.
Can we make them stop lol.
(Also, if you really mean lol! shouldn’t you use an exclamation mark??)
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Some people use it to reinforce the mocking nature of their statement.
For example “Everyone knows Obama is a Muslim Socialist who wants to destroy america, lol!”, when such a sentence is not meant to be sarcastic, but meant to indicate that the author of said sentence thinks that anyone who believes the opposite of that sentence is a ridiculous fool.
I have often pondered that myself. lofl
It’s a habit. I can’t help it, darn it. Lol.
But ragingloli is right, I do use it to show that I’m being silly, joking etc.
@ragingloli Yes, underscoring of a mocking statement is an appropriate use lol. But I know people who just seem to use it, like a habit, at the end of almost every statement when they aren’t mocking or trying to be funny lol.
Not sure why, but it is pretty damn annoying. Sometimes it’s as if they don’t know what it means, and think it’s some sort of sign-off. Like a ham radio conversation that ends with “Over.”.
I said this before on Fluther; I (most probably) have never laughed out loud (I mean really out loud) because of an answer here (or somewhere else on internet).
Usually I hafs!, and sometimes I has!
I don’t know, but when I see that someone has that habit, I usually start avoiding their posts. It gets really irritating.
Even more so was the former user who always wrote “loll”—suggesting that he didn’t think of it as initials but instead pronounced it as a word.
I imagine that the compulsive lollers would be the folks who in conversation acted as if every remark they uttered were some sort of hilarious witticism and expected you to laugh too. I used to work with a guy who treated everyone as an audience for his steady stream of wisecracks. Wore me down in a hurry.
Oh @rebbel…I have literally rolled at times! Talking tears streaming down my face, crossing my legs so….well, anyway! That would be indicated by ROFL!!! With at least three exclamation marks. When I LOL it’s ‘hafs! has! hes!” And THEN I’ll put “lol!” with at least one exclamation mark.
Well, for me “loll!” is just laughing a bit more than “hafs!” and “has!” It’s like, “Oh, that IS funny!” but it isn’t quite ROFL.
@Jeruba that’s kind of what I get too, now that you mention it…like they’re saying something we’re supposed to chuckle at…and they think they say so many things that will make people chuckle they just get into the annoying habit of putting lol at the end, without even thinking about it.
I imagine that it’s a conversational placeholder. The person simply doesn’t know what else to say.
@lonelydragon, I see it more as punctuation. People who use it all the time aren’t usually silent except for their lols. Rather, I think they’re coaching us on how to receive their remarks. If it’s actually funny, we don’t need a label that says “funny,” and if it isn’t, a label won’t help.
Is there a similar expression for giggle? smirk? titter? guffaw? chuckle? Maybe lol is overused for lack of _______ (can’t think of the word for initials that become used instead of the string of words.)
@Sunny2 My point is that some people seem to be using it as a habit. They end perfectly serious posts with lol. I don’t mind LOL! when something is actually funny. But like @Jeruba said…Oh, I know! Jeruba, you got it. LOL should be a response to something funny, not a cue-in that others are supposed to laugh..especially when the post or comment isn’t remotely funny. It’s like laughing at your own jokes….and not realizing that you’re the only one who thinks it’s funny. lol.
Thank you!
Thank you for this question!
I think it’s meant to keep certain statements “light” and conversational that otherwise would lack context. It doesn’t necessarily mean “laughing out loud,” in that case, but it means something like “just sayin’, ya dig?”
Habit I suspect. Or as @Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard suggests they are trying to show they are being light-hearted. I agree that with some people it seems to become sort of like a nervous tic and I doubt they even realise they are doing it.
Once upon a time, in the early days of interaction on the internet or any other faceless social interaction, people seemed to have to reassure each other about their attitude when they typed in their ideas, answers and advice. So stuff like lol, mattered. I figure these days such reassurances are not necessary. People have established a new, and more ambiguous standard of meaning in faceless communication. In a way, that is proper and rational. Since nobody can see your facial expressions, hear your inflections, or feel your affirming touch on their arm or shoulder, why pretend. We should be more wary and take all of this with the “grain of salt” that it deserves without trying to be faked out by lol or other disingenuous bullshit.
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I think it is a sign of poor writing skills. lol.
Blame Wayne Pearson
“They also discovered that the oldest written record of the use of LOL in the contemporary meaning of “Laughing Out Loud” was from a message typed by Wayne Pearson in the 1980s, from the archives of Usenet.”
lol, I wonder what y’all think of someone who starts their written sentences with lol.
Then it does seem like a response, as @Dutchess_III said. I can see somebody laughing at a marvelously apt humorous remark made by someone else. What I can’t see is someone proclaiming over and over and over again that they’re laughing at their own comments, every last tedious one of them.
The use of ‘lol’ makes me cringe.
The annoying thing is, people use lol so much that it’s completely watered down now. When something actually makes me laugh out loud, lol totally fails to convey that because it’s so overused. To me, lol says “mildly funny” or “made me cringe.” I think a lot of people also use it to mask offensive statements. It’s the new “no offence, but…”
I actually do this: HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAH
…when something online literally makes me laugh out loud and I wish to express it.
Maniacal doesn’t have to be bad… look at Jack Nicholson…
I just put that person into the cubby labeled idiotic texting/gadget junkie.
I’ve always took it to mean they’re a sandwich short of a picnic, only in a harmless way.
The worst is when it’s used to indicate lack of ability or knowledge.
I need to write an essay about Martin Luther King Jr., but I don’t know much about civil rights, lol. Can anyone smart help me, lol?
@wilma Have (Having/Has) A Faint Smile! / Has A Smile!
I use it to lessen the awkwardness and stearnness of the preceding text.
You guys are harsh!
@gailcalled Exactly what it says. Sometimes I don’t take my opinions so seriously.
I don’t think it’s such a big deal when you’re trying to make something light-hearted. The word “lol” had lost its literal meaning a long time ago. It doesn’t mean “look how funny I am”.
Why is it such a big deal? As long as it’s not every second word, I don’t even care these days.
Damn, I spelled sternness wrong. @gailcalled you got me.
@FutureMemory No, to me and most people, lol doesn’t actually mean laughing out loud.
@gailcalled Okay, okay no need to mock me, that’s mean.
To me it doesn’t soften any “sternness.” Anything can be written many different ways, to soften any harshness. To me, sticking “lol” on the end only de-intellectualizes the comment. It’s like…what are you giggling about all by yourself over there?
It looks silly to me to put “lol” after sentences also unless you’re really laughing. I think people do it to infer they’re being light hearted in their statement.
@Keep_on_running Ok, I’ll change it. When you’re not being stern, you’re being humorous? Cute? Light-hearted? What about when you’re just being, for lack of a better word, normal?
edit: If that’s the case @Aster, I think it’s a poor method of showing light-heartedness. I prefer a smiley emoticon. :)
@FutureMemory When I’m not being stern I’m just me. That’s why I use “lol” sometimes. In some situations, when I feel like it. You get me?
Let me get my lols out now. Lol lol lol lol lol. Whew. Now I feel better.
@Dutchess_III
Not really, actually I used to be pretty paranoid about not ever using one, then I thought who cares? If someone online dismisses what I’ve just said or thinks any less of it or, as you say “de-intellectualizes” it, that’s there problem and doesn’t reflect very well on them that such a trivial T.L.A can have such negative consequences on the minds that are digesting one’s opinion.
From now on, instead of “lol”, we’ll all say: “Your comment has triggered the activation of my ventromedial prefrontal cortex, causing my epiglottis to constrict my larynx and give me a feeling of joy.”
@Blackberry
Your comment has triggered the activation of my ventromedial prefrontal cortex, causing my epiglottis to constrict my larynx and give me a feeling of joy!!!
:p
@rebbel You were such a cute little dutch boy!
@janbb Were? ;-)
Thank you, that was sweet!
@rebbel Now you’re a gorgeous big Dutch man!
Blackberry “From now on, instead of “lol”, we’ll all say: “Your comment has triggered the activation of my ventromedial prefrontal cortex, causing my epiglottis to constrict my larynx and give me a feeling of joy.”
I love it, I love it! I have to remember this. It is my new signature. lol,lol, rofl!!!
Your comment has triggered the activation of my ventromedial prefrontal cortex, causing my epiglottis to constrict my larynx and give me a feeling of joy!!!
That made me giggle like a 12 year old boy!!!
GOL, HOL, COLLTWWOFW… giggling out loud, huffawing out loud, cackling out loud like the wicked witch of the West…
Clutching side… whoo.. whoo…
————
Not to kill the mood but… what is really annoying is when people use lol in spoken conversations, regardless of whether they’re laughing or not. Ugh. Lol.
What I just realised is we need an acronym for laughing/giggling/snickering inside, because I pretty much don’t ever laugh out loud when I’m online, I keep it on the inside, but there is no popular acronym for that…hmm.
@janbb: Is that the opposite of upchuckling? Are you distracted for some reason?
(Spell-check hates “chuckle.”)
Why madam – how perceptive you are!
CTM sounds good. Even LTM is good. (laughing to myself)
Let me try it out…
That guy had the biggest monobrow ever, ltm.
LOTI (laughing on the inside), there are some great ideas here. I love your statement @Blackberry. Just not sure my brain will remember “Your comment has triggered the activation of my ventromedial prefrontal cortex, causing my epiglottis to constrict my larynx and give me a feeling of joy.”
MA: mildly amused
VS: virtual smile
EIBMLDM: enjoyed it but my lips didn’t move
TIWFBDRP: thought it was funny but didn’t react physically
SBIWSD: sighed because it was so dumb
LSHINTQRTTBBIMM: laughing so hard I need to quickly run to the bathroom before I mess myself.
GMTIE: gritted my teeth in exasperation
INFTFT: it’s not funny the fourth time
ITTBP: I’m trying to be polite
FSO: finally, something original
DQYDJ: don’t quit your day job
EA: enough already
MTRTETWWTKMEO: managed to read the entire thread without wanting to kill myself even once.
THADAATEMSARTAT -Thinking Hard And Deep About Acronym That Explains My State After Reading This Amusing Thread.
TTJHGOTL – Thinking this joke has gone on too long. CTM.
:) O dear! Funny thing is, everyone is referring to creating new acronyms to indicate that they found another person’s comment funny. Hell, I use LOL!! and ROFL!! (upper case and with exclamation marks) when someone says something funny (and looks like I’m going to have to make a list of a million new ones : ) but when it’s referring to the writers own post…it’s annoying. It’s like the person who is the first to laugh at their own jokes and doesn’t notice that they are the only one’s laughing. Annnnooooyyyyyiiiingggg.
When I want to indicate that I’m joking I use a :) face, not lower case, unpunctuated lol. It just looks dumb. How can anyone lol in lower case with no exclamation mark? Is it laughing or not? Or is the person being sarcastic?
Dutchess ll I actually use lol as you say,that is, when something is not literally a thing I would laugh outloud about. Frequently it fits with janbb‘s CTM. I think I am going to start using that one,lol. I don’t consider it to express actually Laughing Outloud so it doesn’t have to be capitalized with exclamation points. In a way it’s like letting someone know in shorthand that you don’t take yourself or the subject all that seriously. I have a dry sense of humor so I am not usually the type to guffaw and roll on the floor laughing but it does happen occasionally :)
I guess I use it sometimes because I am frequently accused of being “too serious”.
I just want all you people above to know that you are in violation of code 4, chapter 18, regulation 256, of the Fluther rules of conduct!
NO TEXTSPEAK!! myself included You have been warned! lol
OS! Ur rite @Earthgirl! Auggie’s gon 2 flay us! lol
You don’t have to edit @gailcalled! Unless..you were getting ready to be mean to me. :)
@Dutchess III
And what are the chances of that happening.. :)
All I have to do, apparently, is look stern (which is so much more pleasant than nagging).
I HATE it when you look stern at me @gailcalled lol <<didn’t mean that
My last two (and this) remark(s) have been and are directed to the general public rather than a specific sinner.
whew! Well, if you aren’t talking to me specifically, there is no need to edit!
I hope I’m not one of those people. I know I use “lol” but I conciously make an effort to not use it too much. I use it mainly to show I’m being silly, laughing or when the topic is making me laugh nervously (and I feel like I need to lighten it up for myself).
I just went to the bathroom lol
@Plucky that just made me realize…women use it a lot more than men lol
@WillWorkForChocolate That was more information than I needed to know lol
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Definitely what he ^^^ said. Sorry @janbb. Didn’t mean to poke ya there!
Move down the bus people… no need to bump into each other…
So, everyone having a good Easter Sunday? Lol.
My baby girl’s face is all swollen from that damn dog bite, despite the antibiotics, so we have to go back in to Urgent Care and she’ll miss more school. LOL
Did you like the way I used “lol” right there? <sigh>
Lol, poor thing…dog bites are no fun, especially for a small child.
A dog bit her on the face on Saturday, she was seen at Urgent Care, but the doctor guy kinda did something wrong (story of my fucking life), and…...... she had to go back this morning because her eye was almost swollen shut. She had to have a shot of Rocephin, a change in oral antibiotics, and we had to take the dermabond glue off her face to get the wound to drain. It’s been an ugly, ugly day. And I’m not allowed to cry because I’m the mom, so I have to hold it together.
Is the owner of the dog taking any responsibility for the bite?
@WillWorkForChocolate My gosh..you have the WORST luck with Doctors. Your poor daughter. I’m so sorry…..Whose dog and what happened?
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