The Overuse of LOL

I apologize in advance to those that this will offend.  The language contained within will not be nice nor will it be “suitable for work” or for a child’s ears (not that you’re reading this blog to your child – boy would that be cool).  With that being said… STFU.

We live in world today where the vast majority of our interaction is digital.  140 character tweets, text message, status updates, etc.  It only stands to reason that some of that digital communication will be done in short hand so that we don’t have to go through the laborious task of actually TYPING what we think (perish the thought).  With the digital world that I’ve molded for myself (between Twitter, Facebook, online communities that I belong to, etc.) I’ve come to accept and downright rely on many of these.  A few of my “favorites” are below:

• AFAIC – as far as I’m concerned
• AFK – away from keyboard
• ASAP – as soon as possible (this one really isn’t specific to the online world, but I thought I’d include it)
• ASL? – age, sex, location (typically found in an online chat forum)
• AYBABTU – all your base are belong to us (don’t ask)
• FAQ – frequently asked questions
• IIRC – if I recall correctly
• IMHO – in my humble opinion
• LMAO – laughing my ass off

Those are pretty straight forward… and then we get to these (NSFW – not suitable for work for the non-initiated) gems:

• FFS – for fuck sake
• FOAD – fuck off and die (a personal favorite of mine, though I can honestly say I’ve never used it)
• FML – fuck my life
• LMFAO – laughing my fucking ass off
• PITA – pain in the ass

And the one that is the crux of this post: LOL – laughing out loud.

Folks… it’s one thing to use this on occasion.  You know… when you’re actually laughing out loud.  But when you put it in your Facebook status update more than once in the same update you’ve gone too far.  Stuff like this (see below) REALLY pisses me off:

“Just got home from the store and the dog ate through the couch cushion LOL.  Guess no dinner for him and I’m going to have to find a new couch LOL!“

First off… your dog eating through your couch cushion is not:

1. something I care to hear about
2. something that is funny
3. something that you should be laughing out loud about

Furthermore, if you ARE in fact “laughing out loud” at your dog eating your couch, you’ve already told me once.  There is absolutely NO reason to tell me about it again at the end of the message.  Are you honestly telling me that you started laughing out loud at the beginning of the message, stopped laughing out loud and then started laughing out loud again after you determined that you needed a new couch???

Don’t get me wrong… I’m not suggesting that the use of LOL be banned or even that you NEED to be physically laughing out loud every single time you use it.  I’m just as guilty of this as the next guy.  These days LOL has really come to be a way of saying, “Hey, that’s funny/clever” to one of your online buddies.  My issue is when it’s used alot… like a TON.  Like, a REALLY REALLY REALLY lot.  LOL.

OIC, u r just being a POS PITA right? LOL.  I’m ROFLMAO at you.  TTYL cuz this is the SSDD that I always hear from U. FML.  L8R.  LOL. FOAD (there… now I’ve used it 😉 )