The Death of LOL

Despite what the title of this article may imply, everyone knows that the all too familiar acronym "LOL" is hardly on its way out the door. The abbreviation that, once upon a time, people sometimes confused with "lots of love" has been around a long time and is probably here to stay, as people continue to utilize LOL in a variety of ways, ranging from using it as a description of their reaction getting Rickroll'd, to such things as texting the acronym (or as the case may be, "txting") to their friend as a way of explaining how funny the latest Cyanide & Happiness comic is. Its usage is still rapidly growing, as well; many people have dutifully reported their experiences of accidentally spewing out the phrase LOL in real life, and the frequency of these incidents seems to be growing to the point where it's practically becoming a real word.

So, when asking if LOL has died, the question isn't whether it exists anymore: it's whether it's lost all meaning.

LOL, as everyone knows, is an acronym for the phrase "Laugh out loud." However, it's come to be used less and less for that meaning and more and more as a simple way to break up space. Generally, when someone types LOL, they're actually merely chuckling to themselves, or smiling at the screen. They're not, despite what LOL would imply, literally laughing out loud.

So what's used in place of LOL, for when someone does actually laugh audibly?

As the internet evolved, so did the acronyms utilized by its many users. Such phrases as IMO, IMHO, BTW and TTYL entered the net vocabulary, and soon after, the public lexicon. In addition to these, many other phrases were created to stand for the same thing as LOL, albeit using different words. Some of the more popular ones are LMAO, or "laughing my ass off," as well as ROTFL, which translates to "Rolling on the floor laughing." Some daring souls even elect to use the acronym ROTFLMAO, which means "Rolling on the floor laughing my ass off." The most complicated acronym is perhaps the monstrous ROFLMAOPIMP, which means "Rolling on the floor, laughing my ass off, peeing my pants." When seen in comparison to this giant, the chuckle that is implied by a simple LOL really has nowhere to seen.

So what should an internet user really say, when they are laughing? When in doubt, the answer is apparently to use as many letters as possible. Or, in other words, ROTFLMAOPIMP.

LOL isn't dead, but it's meaning has changed, in the same way that the English language has always evolved. Not too long ago, coming two words like "all ready" into "already" would've been unheard of. Perhaps someday, maybe even just a couple decades or less from today, the acronym LOL will transform into the word lol, and take it's unique place alongside the other words in the dictionary.