No Laughing Matter

I’ve had it. Stop it with your “LOL” already. “LOL,” in instant messaging or email, used to mean “What you just said was so funny that now I am laughing out loud.”

Now we use it to punctuate our sentences (“I am eating corn on the cob … lol”), let others know we are laughing (which is probably a lie, since these days “LOL” normally follows a phrase with little or no comedic value) or indicate to others when something is meant to be funny (“The chicken crossed the road, LOL!”). This is almost used as an instruction, as if it were actually the word “laugh.” (The chicken crossed the road, laugh!”)

I will not.