Lmao, even
Tone is an absolute bitch to convey properly over text, if you don’t add indicators it’s up to the reader to determine the tone you’re using. Miscommunication causes larger problems. Using lol helps indicate a lighter tone so people don’t think I’m pissed off or grumpy when I’m not
Laugh out loud, lol.
Elder (and just old) millennial here. I remember “lol” became a thing because cell phones became a common thing. Specifically, the old flip phones.
Texting on them was a pain. Imagine having to type words with only a number pad. And you only had a tiny digital screen that could only fit a few words on it. On top of that, we were sometimes charged by the character. Or sometimes by the word. Depended on your service.
Everyone was looking for the shortest way to type words and get their message across. So shortcuts like “lol,” “ily,” “wdym,” etc. became common use. As well as a variety of text emojis like :) :D :P or the fancy Japanese ones: (^_^) (-_-;;) etc.
As someone who spent their childhood with their nose buried in books, it bothered me to see this shorthand English everywhere. It just felt lazy to me. To this day, I’ve never typed “lol” unless I’m talking about the acronym itself.
I’d say they were already very common in online chatrooms long before cellphones were widely adopted. They just translated really well to the poor typing options, character limits, and per-message billing of the time so became more widely adopted (and some new shorthand created).
Thank you for explaining this, lol
What I want… No. What I need is a browser extension that would change every “lol” on every page into a small picture of a TIE Fighter. It would make that flyby noise if you put your mouse over it and you could blow it up by clicking.
Someone who’s good at computer, please make! I’m going to assume it wouldn’t be that hard.
Your comment triggered me to ask an LLM to create it, and it came up with something. I’m not going to test it though, so we’ll never know if it works. I’d advise anyone not to try it. It gave links to an image and a sound file that gave a 404 error. LLM output:
Here’s a complete Firefox extension that replaces the text “lol” with a TIE Fighter image, plays a sound on hover, and changes the image on click.
🔧 Firefox Extension: “Lol to TIE Fighter”
- Manifest File (manifest.json)
{ "manifest_version": 2, "name": "Lol to TIE Fighter", "version": "1.0", "description": "Replaces 'lol' with a TIE Fighter image and plays sound on hover.", "permissions": [ "activeScript", "scripting", "https://example.com/*" ], "content_scripts": [ { "matches": ["<all_urls>"], "js": ["content.js"] } ], "background": { "scripts": ["background.js"] }, "options_page": "options.html" }- Content Script (content.js)
document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function() { function replaceTextNodesWithImages() { const walker = document.createTreeWalker(document.body, NodeFilter.SHOW_TEXT, null, false); let node; while (node = walker.nextNode()) { if (node.textContent.includes("lol")) { const img = document.createElement("img"); img.src = "https://example.com/tie-fighter.png"; // Replace with your image URL img.style.width = "20px"; img.style.height = "20px"; img.style.display = "inline-block"; img.style.cursor = "pointer"; // Sound on hover img.addEventListener("mouseover", () => playSound()); // Blow up on click img.addEventListener("click", () => blowUp(img)); node.replaceWith(img); } } } replaceTextNodesWithImages(); }); function playSound() { const audio = new Audio("https://example.com/sound.mp3"); // Replace with your sound URL audio.play(); } function blowUp(img) { img.src = "https://example.com/blowup.png"; // Replace with a larger image or "none" img.style.width = "40px"; img.style.height = "40px"; }- Image and Sound Requirements TIE Fighter Image: Replace the URL in content.js with a public domain image. Example: TIE Fighter Image from Wikipedia Sound Effect: Replace the URL with a .mp3 file hosted on your server. Example: Sound Effect from FreeSound.org 🛠️ How to Use Create the files: manifest.json content.js Load the extension in Firefox: Go to about:debugging in Firefox. Click Add Extension and select the folder with your files. Test on any website with “lol” text. ⚠️ Notes Image/Sound URLs: Replace the URLs with your own hosted or public domain assets. Performance: This script runs on every page, so consider optimizing for large sites. Security: Ensure the image and sound URLs are secure to avoid errors. This extension replaces “lol” with a TIE Fighter image, plays a sound on hover, and expands the image on click. Adjust the URLs to match your assets!
Lol, no.
Also this is millennial thing, not GenX. I don’t know anyone from that generation that would use lol.
Also this is millennial thing, not GenX.
Did someone say GenX? Or am I misreading your comment here?
Now it’s “💀”
Actually, it’s “😭” now
I keep seeing zoomers use this and it keeps confusing the shit out of me, because half the time, it just looks like crying, not laughing-crying.
Maybe they’re just bad at it and using the wrong emoji half the time? idfk
Yeah the crying laughing emoji is 😂 why tf are they using the actual crying emoji
I genuinely do not know, but I keep running into that, where they just use the crying emoji and they tell me it means they’re laughing so hard they cried (not literally of course but w/e)… even though there actually is a laughing-crying emoji.
I’m going to yell at
cloudstiktok, its probablycloud’stiktok’s fault, somehow.EDIT:
like, I tell a joke, they respond with a crying emoji, I am confused and apologetic because I think I hurt their feelings and they are just sad crying… nope.
Nope they actually liked the joke.
This has happened to me a number of times in the last 6-9 months, with different people.
I am actually gen z and the “😂” has simply become cringe because older people overused it so much and I guess that’s why we switched to “😭”
It’s also interesting to me how you still see it as crying because my brain just doesn’t make that connection at all anymore
I genuienly appreciate the explanation, that makes sense.
2 reasons unc here sees them similarly:
A ) I barely ever use emojis
Many millennials grew up using
*-*=D:<0.0=[… style constructions to represent emotions / facial expressions in text.
I’m used to those, I’m not used to emojis.
B ) I’m just actually slowly losing visual acuity.
I’m getting oooollldddd.
I’ve got an astigmatism now, and I tend to only wear my glasses when I absolutely need to.
So I have to squint or put on my glasses to make out variations in emojis, sometimes.
It’s like when it’s sad but also funny, so like, you’re laughing, but also crying in a “this is too real” kinda way
At least that’s how me and my friends seem to use it :p
Am millennial and have never once used that acronym. I always just type “haha” instead… haha
But plenty of millennials did for sure. I’m 1987, was never a loler myself, but am certainly familiar enough with it.
And admittedly, I have used it. My buddy and I used to sit in his room playing red alert 2, and one of us would do something dumb and the other would type “lol,” and then look across the room with a straight face. So I always imagined someone typing lol to be doing so with a completely straight face, the complete opposite of laughing out loud.
Right haha, think the “lol” was gen x.
Millennials were ABSOLUTELY all about the lols, I can assure you. It was the most widely used acronym everywhere (second being brb, I would wager).
We roflcopter’d and roflmao’d with the best of em! lol
It’s pretty common with millenials at least
Just roflcopter it
Blast from the past
I used/use it a lot, became the standard when I was on AIM.
Mostly I feel people use it for tone and switch between the two. Then again I also respond with k too often apparently and have had spouses bring it up to me. “I’m going to pick up hot dog buns on the way home” k is apparently not always the proper response to such things apparently.
K, lol, cool/kool, alright, nice, oh… Apparently make up a lot of what she calls my NPC responses.
It’s not that I don’t care, it’s that there really isn’t a reason for me to send a flushed out response while I’m in a rush and or trying to respond at a red light. I’ll see them soon, if i thought something else should be picked up at the store when they were there id either say so or call if I thought it warranted a quick discussion.
If I ask do you want tacos, sure is a perfectly valid response, we’ve shared a bed for 5 years… if I don’t know what you do and don’t like on a taco I wasn’t paying attention, if you want something you usually wouldn’t, then it makes sense to say more
I’m a millennial and I use lol way too often to start or end messages
Am millenial, I’ve used both lol and haha, since… I dunno, 1996?
I distinctly remember the first time I accidentally said ‘lol’ outloud, as a single syllable, at the end of a sentence.
I know, right? haha

The lol has contextual meaning though. Sometimes it means “you fucking idiot” and sometimes it means “thats funny” and sometimes it means “i dont care” etc.
Lol
Don’t wanna, lmao
lol is the millennials version of over, lol
Lol! lol
lol, no









