One of the Internet's most popular terms is in danger of extinction. According to a Facebook study, users are using this expression less and less, which determines that the death of “LOL” (Laughing Out Loud) has arrived.
A recent Facebook study has indicated the death of “LOL” (Laughing Out Loud), one of the most used terms for expressing laughter on social networks. The study was conducted on Facebook during the last week of May, analyzing messages and comments from users in the United States in search of different ways to express laughter, including variants of “haha”, “hehe”, emoji, and “lol”. The results? The most common laugh is “haha” at 51.4%, followed by various emoji at 33.7%, while “hehe” is used by 13.1%. Only 1.9% of people use “lol”.
But why is this happening? Apparently, age, gender, and geographic location play an important role in the type and duration of laughter: young people and women prefer emoji, while men prefer longer “hehe” (“hehehehehe”). People in Chicago and New York prefer emoji, while in Seattle and San Francisco they prefer “haha”. The study also analyzed the number of laughs per person, indicating that around 46% of people wrote a single laugh during the week, while 85% recorded no less than five laughs.
Although Facebook did not specify the exact amount of data, it is understood that the age division is the most important point: “LOL” is more popular among older users, who have been there since the early days of the Internet. If you still use “LOL”, it means you are already old. The rise of new acronyms and emojis has overshadowed the reign of “LOL”, demonstrating that web language changes over time and that nothing is forever. The only conclusion that can be drawn from this Facebook study is that “LOL” is dead.
