Spyke

Early internet days on ICQ, my family members would use lol as "lots of love" which just made some messages hilarious. "Bye, miss you lol!"

9

I’m gen z rather than a millennial, but for me putting lol at the start of a sentence just means I have a 75% chance of putting multiples lol in the sentence.

I’ve recognized this enough times that now when it happens there’s a little alarm that goes off in my head to remove some lols

14
zip
lemmy.blahaj.zone

Well, at least we grew out of adding xD to the end of everything! XDDD

49
fedia.io

xDeez Nuts Hahahahahahahahahahahhaahhaahahahahahhahahahahahahahaahahhahahahahahahajajahauaauuaha I'm so funny

19
Rinnreply
awful.systems

Depends where you live, it's somehow still alive and well in Poland! You'd usually use the lowercase xd for a more refined and low-key vibe tho, the full caps ones are reserved for special occasions.

5
lemmy.world

I love how you can get the evolution from the original "XD", which low key resembles a facial expression to the "more refined" "xd", which resembles nothing at all but just relies on cultural awareness to be interpreted.

5
lemmy.zip

As an elder millennial, I don't use "lol," but you'll have to take : ) from my cold, dead hands.

: )

27

I get pretty silly with it ⁠(⁠ ͡⁠◉⁠ ͜⁠ ⁠ʖ⁠ ͡⁠◉⁠)

3
lemmy.world

it’s just another intonation marker, a hedging particle, or a pragmatic tone indicator.

it signals the sentence is for comradery, but not immediate action

21
leminal.space

Technically a xennial, but yeah it's a necessity lol

My speech is really blunt so I feel like every other thing I write would otherwise be misinterpreted as some personal attack lol

(Now reread it without the lols)

16
startrek.website

I'm a Xennial and I have hated the LOL shit right from the start. Actually aside from the basic abbreviations from IRC, I tend to avoid acronyms entirely and prefer properly typed messages. Anyone sending "lol" with every message won't see a lot of responses from me.

1
lemmy.dbzer0.com

We're all borrowed matter dancing upon the firmament of an indefinable thing called reality, and our conscious existence is nothing more than an emergent property of this farce within a farce, lol

6

We have no reason to be here, whatever God made us only did it because He could and needed fun on watching our mudane lives lol

1
imjustmskreply
lemmy.ml

I'm not even sure I'm genz, im kinda at the edge but sure I'm a genz too lol and I cnt stop using lol, lol

edit: by edge, I mean on the younger side btw

5
Zwiebelreply
feddit.org

Do the gen alpha peeps use it too?

It has to become cringe at some point since their parents probably use it lol

4
Dozzi92reply
lemmy.world

Yeah, I never became a lol'er, dunno whether or of spite or what, but haha was my go-to response for someone said something that I'm supposed to express some reaction of humor to. Heh sometimes. Ha has a different feel to it.

4
lemmy.dbzer0.com

holy crap I'm so self-conscious about this now and just looked back at a bunch of messages on multiple platforms and the ratio is insane...

7

This is me on discord. I find myself starting and ending messages with it. I’ll go back and edit messages when I finally notice it to dial it back a little.

1
lemmy.world

For me and the ppl I chatted/texted with was it mostly smiles like: xD xP XD xd x3 and the laughing was haha, hahahahaha, HAHAHA, sometimes lol and rofl but most of the times were lol used as a way to say "that was weird" or "that is stupid", could also be a question "is it supposed to be funny?" Or a statement about what you said or will say "I am silly" so ppl would know they can find it funny/it is ok to laugh.

I rarely used lol for actually laughing, it was more used as "that/this is silly". I think the younger millenniums said lol and rofl instead of smilies more often but I am unsure about that one.

6

I actually used to hate it back in the day because it was so overused but then when I hit the Skype era, I succumbed to my friends and started spamming it along with lmao because it was easy to type on a keyboard with zero effort.

Also that one evolution extinction meme of all the dead ones like rofl and roflmao.

Rest in Spaghetti Never Forgetti lol

6
lemmy.world

respond ending your sentence with "haha hahaha haaa" they love that haha hahaha haaa

6
shamelessreply
lemmy.world

I love a lol but definitely love a hahaha to switch things up and keep it fresh

3
lemmy.world

For me the thing which i do the most is adding "..." Multiple times between the sentences or at the last of the sentences. 😭

6
leminal.space

I finally found out about the ellipses phenomenon amongst the older gen a while ago, and how it was a common format in writing that they tried to transfer to texting and millennials constantly misinterpret as it passive aggression, which causes all sorts of anxiety lol

Shit you not, once asked for a recommendation letter from a summer job employer on campus for an open mic music lounge I hadn't visited in a long time, and all he emailed me back was

"Sure..."

Needless to say, I thought "Oh fuck, he hates me. Nevermind. I should have come by more-" and never bothered to follow up on it lmfao

6

Well i think I just use multiple ellipses to show that I’m thinking before I answer. Without ellipses, it sounds too fast and straightforward.

1

That's why it's a middle aged guy in the meme. Also, it's goodo have older people talking like normal humans and not corporate chatbots.

2

Its because this stupid word was everywhere when our minds were being trained on IRC and MSN lol

2
lemmy.today

There's no difference between this and emojis. People use them out of nervousness.

2

No, that's me trying to play a game and the carpal tunnel I've had since teenage hood deciding that I'm not going to play a game.

1

It's weird to be one of the only millennials I know who doesn't use lol at all. It always feels so weird when I try. I think it's because I never used MSN growing up.

1

I mean, in-person North American boomers had the effusive smile. Basically the same thing.

1
Ilandarreply
lemmy.today

It's not, but if you're seeing Boomers using it too it's because their children are often Millennials.

2
Zwiebelreply
feddit.org

The smileys :D :) B) and so on were invented by boomer nerds in the pre-www era.

lol was definitetly capitalized LOL in the (milennial?) beginning

2

Yeah, I used to use "LOL" more as a teenager on MSN, etc. At some point it became more exaggerated; people began using it to show genuine laughter or to mock others, and "lol" became a more relaxed acknowledgement of general humour.

Another interesting change is "lmao". That also used to be capitalised and used to indicate a level of laughter greater than "LOL", but at some point it became lowercase and very passive aggressive. I almost exclusively see it being used to taunt/mock others, often by Gen Z.

2