LOL on this forum

[George]

Whether it's anything to do with love or laughs, just what are people thinking when they use the three letters - LOL?

I just did a search at this forum for LOL and it throws up about 32 pages of results, i.e. lots.

As most of you will know, yesterday, it was revealed that David Cameron sent texts to Rebekah Brooks, ending with LOL, thinking it meant 'lots of love', until she said it meant 'laugh out loud'. He never used it again!

So I started transposing love and laughs into uses of LOL at this forum, and neither made much sense within many of the posts. Do members have something else in mind, or are you frequently laughing out loud at recipes and ideas?

Others have suggested it should only be used by teenagers:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9720000/9720457.stm

[Unclebuck]

acgaf

[Unclebuck]

use this george
http://www.noslang.com/

use it, use it, use it, use it, use it, use it, use it, use it, use it, use it, use it, use it, use it, use it, use it, use it, use it, use it, use it, use it, use it, use it, use it, use it, use it, use it, use it, use it, use it, use it, use it, use it, use it!

[Peripatetic Phil]

I am inclined to think of "LOL" as analogous to smoking : mindlessly adopted by those who are more influenced by peer pressure than by their own inate intelligence.  I have yet to read a message where I felt that the inclusion of "LOL" added anything worthwhile to the content.  But I am intensely grateful that, whilst there are some who feel the occasional need to incorporate "LOL" in their messages, we have not yet sunk to the level of some fora where, almost without exception, each participant addresses the others as "m8".

** Phil.

[Stephen Lindsay]

  gr8 post

[PaulP]

gr8 post

LOL 

[Unclebuck]

no pro m8 LOL

[Razor]

Hi George,

Interesting post.  I should think that people who include such acronyms as 'lol or lmao, or indeed pmsl' do so with the intention of adding some 'humour' to their post/reply or comments.  No, i doubt very much that they are really 'laughing Out loud or p***ing themselves laughing' but are merely displaying that fact they they find the post amusing, pretty much in the same way as using some of the emoticons that the forum allows.

I am inclined to think of "LOL" as analogous to smoking : mindlessly adopted by those who are more influenced by peer pressure than by their own inate intelligence.

Mmm, bit harsh I think Phil?  I have used 'lol' on many occasions on this forum but not because I lack intelligence or feel under pressure to 'conform' to an expected style of chat!  I've used it in the context that I have explained above.  I do agree that there is 'some' pressure to understand how the youth of today communicate, especially if you have teenage children.  I allow my teenage son to use MSN messenger, as long as he understands that from time to time, i will insist on looking over his shoulder just to monitor his activity.  To be honest, he may aswell be writting in 'Martian' because I can not understand a single word of it BUT he thinks that I can, so hopefully, that keeps him in check?

I would say though, I can understand why it would annoy some members, afterall, this isn't really a 'Chatroom' so using acronyms, abbreviations and slang, to speed up response time, isn't really appropriate on a forum such as this.

Ray

[Les]

I think some of us older generation need to progress from the past, and into the present,
My grand children use shortened words all the time, and i don't see any problem with it myself, It doesn't mean there stupid, far from it.

eg:- C U L8er, nowt wrong we that, It's a time saver ;D

Les

It's a new world out there, embrace it,

[Stephen Lindsay]

One of the great comedy wordsmiths, Ronnie Barker once wrote a sketch that went along the lines of

F U N E X?

(Have you any eggs?)

This ain't exactly new speak.