Since when did ‘LOL’ become so not funny?

By Tansee Mcreynolds
Course: Language, Gender, and Sexuality (Ling 2400)
Advisor: Prof. Kira Hall, TA Velda Khoo
LURA 2019 

In everyday text talk between my roommates and me, I began to notice that the acronym ‘LOL’, which stands for ‘Laugh Out Loud’, was being used in peculiar ways. From intense conversations where two texters were having an argument to seemingly ordinary conversations that lacked humor, ‘LOL’ frequently found its way into the text messages. So why do texters use ‘LOL’ when communicating about something that is not funny? What makes a certain group of friends use ‘LOL’ when communicating to each other? If ‘LOL’ is no longer an acronym for ‘Laugh Out Loud’, what is it now? My video essay explores the possible answers to these questions and many more while analyzing texting conversations from my personal group chats with my roommates.

In my project, I examine how a community of practice, a group of people who share a common interest, use language to communicate and connect with one another. My community of practice includes three of my roommates and myself, who are all college-aged females and friends at the University of Colorado Boulder. My essay analyzes how my community of practice uses ‘LOL’ while texting. Specifically, I explain how ‘LOL’ has moved beyond its purpose as an acronym and is transforming into an unmarked discourse marker that helps direct a conversation in everyday text talk. Further, in my research, I found that ‘LOL’ is used for three main purposes. ‘LOL’ is used to signify laughter, to mitigate an uncomfortable situation, and to indicate social presence. ‘LOL’ is used in modified terms like ‘lololol’ to show laughter. It is used when two roommates are in an argument with each other. Finally, I found that texters use it to say ‘I hear you’ when responding to a message. Essentially, ‘LOL’ is now being used in very different kinds of conversation for very diverse purposes. The wide variety of situations that ‘LOL’ is used in demonstrates just how unmarked the text phrase has become over the years. My research ultimately demonstrates how language can evolve and take on a new meaning just from people like you and me using it in a unique way.

In the period of one month, I collected data by taking screenshots of all instances when ‘LOL’ was used in a group message between my roommates and me. After data collection, I analyzed and sorted through 47 text message conversations resulting in an assortment of the most common uses of ‘LOL’. Using research from my Language, Gender, and Sexuality (LING 2400) class, and outside sources, I was able to categorize the uses of ‘LOL’. The next step was to pick out the messages that best exemplified the three categories that I found. Linguistics literature on discourse markers have helped support the conclusions that I have reached. The video essay was the perfect format to demonstrate my findings because of the ability to show my data. To respect the privacy of my roommates involved, I recreated the text messages and screen recorded them to provide footage for the video essay. The real-time footage of the incoming text messages allows the viewers to get a sense of how the conversation actually played out.

Opening photo credit
http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/3CE6/production/_84809551_lol...