There's not been much to 'LOL' about 2020 has there? So perhaps it's natural that this would become the year the phrase would die.
Except, actually the evolution of the word means that more than ever, I've found myself sending a lol, or often lollllllllll. Like, a lol droll, yknow? Like a 'Oh cool there's a Boris Johnson press conference at 4pm lolllllll'
And as our communication has moved increasingly online, we've had to send more lols, because, well, they can't be heard by your friend's ears when we're all locked in our separate homes, can they?
Because there have been some laughs this year. Even if they're 'laugh so you do't cry' laughs. They all count.
But, as TikTok user @quenblackwell has pointed out... well... watch...
Yeah it seems that when younger internet users now think something is funny, they instead use a trail of incomprehensible letters meaning absolutely nothing.
So previously us 'internet oldies' might say: ' The government claim they can't afford free school meals but will take a pay rise? lollllllll x infinity'
And now 'the kids' say: 'The government claim they can't afford free school meals but will take a pay rise? jfdoeyhiwfhnelkqwrnfmeqlkfufhiwhfu'
'WHAT HAPPENED TO LOL? LMAO? ROFL?' Yes, our thoughts exactly.
The word lol crossed over into what I'd call post-ironic common parlance some while ago now. I'm gonna say since the 2012 release of seminal Miley Cyrus and Demi Moore movie, LOL.
So most of us are coming into a decade of using the phrase, maybe it's about time it retired? Language changes after all.
But replacing it with the incomprehensible mkljiohjbjbyugygjknms of TikTok Gen Zers, we're just not sure, with all that 2020 already has thrown at us, is something we can do.
So, does using LOL make us old now? Are we now the mad aunties in the WhatsApp chat, who use emojis the wrong way and used to think that LOL actually stands for lots of love? Is that... us now? Is this the moment, we realise we're... old?
Lollllll, nooooo. We're millennials. We refuse to age. REFUSE.
So, as the tagline in LOL The Movie says, 'Status can change, but true love remains the same'.
Even if using LOL signifies us now as the older crowd, the mums on the internet (not quite the grandmas yet, please!) our love for a LOL remains the same. It's too ingrained in our lives now, for it to be cast aside.
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