Typing "LOL" when you're really not Laughing Out Loud.

reply to post by Skate


It's true, I never laugh-out-loud when I say LOL.

Wytch

originally posted by: Skate
I feel like this is something we all do.

Many individuals seem to have delusion-based feelings.

(Sorry for replying to a very old post - I like reading the older rants sometimes, and then they provoke a reaction in me.)

I was raised by the BBS etiquette and in that era, everyone knew how to use smileys properly, and how to use the acronyms properly (there was a plethora of acronyms - nowadays, people just use a few).

I was glad about "LOL" and "ROTFLMAO" and such, because they allowed people to express themselves in a humorous and yet accurate way. I never used ROFL, because I never actually rolled on the floor laughing (except once, but I wasn't 'online' at the moment, as they used to say).

But I did use "LOL". I only used after I actually had laughed out loud - to emphasize how funny something was, because it really did make me actually laugh! So it was almost a badge of honor that you granted to something's or someone's funniness.

When we used smileys, we didn't just add them carelessly or try to figure out ways to just make everything silly and goofy - we used them with tact, like after a sentence that could have seemed a bit harsh or even hostile without it - to indicate that it's said with a tongue on the cheek, or that it's not said completely seriously. It was never intended to express an actual smile, or to take away the meaning of what was said, or to use it like a laugh track to create 'artificial, forced humor'. There was a purpose to it all, and even with humor, you didn't always use smileys (you actually expected the recipient to have enough intelligence to be able to get it).

Nowadays, smileys are used without purpose, "just because", just like the acronyms. When the mainstream started looking at computers and 'being online', the old etiquette was lost, and stupidity ensued.

I stopped using 'LOL', because its meaning had been distorted and perverted, and people did not use it honestly and with dignity. Heck, most people don't even know what 'dignity' even is anymore.

No one wants to write civilized messages about meaningful things and use smileys and acronyms tactfully, but people want to have zillions of ugly GRAPHICAL SMILEYS (the worst visual monstrosities ever witnessed by my poor eyes) and pepper their messages with them and the acronyms, and all kinds of animated transmogrifications of already ugly symbols, and they call that 'communicating'.

Hm, it's odd - every time I reply to a rant, I start creating a small rant myself..

There's a lot more to be said about all this - and I could describe the delicate balance that we carefully pondered when using the smileys and acronyms that was so great back then, and I could describe the different kinds of more subtle humor we used - but what's the use? Modern people aren't going to get it. That era is permanently lost, unless somehow the people of this planet will rise from their demonic slumber where they're sinking deeper every day, and become humans again - but I am not holding my breath. Almost everything here is contaminated, and ATS is no exception.

So, to sum it up; I don't use "LOL" anymore, and I consider anyone doing so mentally challenged or in some other way 'not fully there'. Herd-mentality ensures that people will continue racing towards the bottom of the stupidity spiral. And I only support text-based smileys, used carefully and purposefully.

I know I am in the minority on this planet, but probably in the majority in this solar system.. (but what else is new, I am used to being in the minority on so very many things and areas of life, despite having a similar humanoid body as most of what some might call 'my peers', or fellow Terra-walkers).

By the way, when you use acronyms like "LOL", at least have the courtesy of writing it correctly, with uppercase letters, okay?

Because writing "lol" is like expressing multiple layers of stupidity (in addition to lying). First you are saying something that isn't true, then you can't be bothered to write it fully, but you decide to use an acronym, like some illiterate feminist, who doesn't know the alphabet, and then you write even that wrong - only three letters, and you can't get it right..

How is anyone supposed to ever trust your intellectual capacity to .. well, pretty much anything? I am sure that even a retarded mongoloid could write it correctly - it's just pressing three keys in a row while holding the SHIFT-key, or having the CAPS LOCK key pressed before it. Even a monkey could probably be trained to do it without much trouble.

And yet, the modern 'communication expert' comes to an internet forum and .. fails at it.

I simply cannot understand or relate to that level of stupidity - and I consider myself pretty much lacking in intelligence, wisdom and mental capacity and such faculties. How can native english speakers write worse english than someone who learned it later in life?

Maybe all of them should read this list:

americantypo.site11.com...

LOL FTW!

a reply to: Skate

well LMAO is another lie then. I still have my A and I could not laugh it off BUT I do LOL quite a lot. How would anyone know online if you haven't laughed out loud?