The online edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), in 2011, allowed in a bunch of “initialisms”, like LOL, OMG and FYI. All it took was time for LOL to lose its sheen. According to a new poll of Gen Z smartphone users, LOL has become unfashionable. So long, LOL, you couldn’t match the charm of the word ‘loll’, as in “a dog with its tongue lolling out”.
The poll, commissioned by Sky Mobile, shows that getting a LOL in a message irritates 26 per cent of 18- to 28-year-olds. But it’s not their biggest gripe. The king of the hill is sluggish replies. Equally annoying, vexing, and infuriating is the impatient “??” if an immediate reply doesn’t come through to a message.
Keeping up with smartphone lingo is a bit like keeping up with the ‘G’ in 4G and 5G; it stands for ‘generation’. LOL may have had OED’s blessings in 2011, but its usage could date back to the 1980s, when one Wayne Pearson claims to have written LOL in a chat room after his friend ‘Sprout’ said something that made him laugh so loud that it echoed “off the walls” of his kitchen. Reference to LOL has also been made in an electronic newsletter from the International FidoNet Association on May 8, 1989.
Falling out of love with LOL is not easy. Those three letters have also had a political vibe. In 2012, a year after OED opened its gates to LOL, former British prime minister David Cameron faced embarrassment after details of intimate texts he exchanged with the former News International chief Rebekah Brooks emerged. She said the prime minister signed off most texts with the letters DC but occasionally used the acronym LOL. He stopped after learning that the text shorthand stood for “laugh out loud”, not “lots of love”.
So what are we saying? Using LOL in WhatsApp messages has reached dad- or mum-level cool. Comedian Nasser Al-Rayess has already questioned the use of the abbreviation in serious texts. He said in a video: “Can we stop saying LOL after every message that we send? ‘What do you want to eat, LOL? Just got hit by a car, heading to the hospital, LOL.’”
Suffering the same fate as LOL are a bunch of emoji — the see-no-evil monkey, awkward grimace, happy poo, and even the simple thumbs-up. Cringe, cringe! And don’t even get started about the tears of joy emoji, which has reached oldie status.
The research teamed up with British TV personality Pete Wicks, who said: “Keep it simple, reply on time, and don’t be that person blasting videos out loud on the train. Stick to that and you’ll stay well out of the ‘phone ick zone’.”
Last year, a study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology mentioned that while 99.3 per cent of people use text abbreviations to save time, these shortcuts can often annoy recipients and complicate communication.
Hang on, there’s more. Voice messages, that’s an ick. Going by the research, 26 per cent of young people think playing voice notes in public is uncool, while 21 per cent feel the same about leaving the keyboard sound on. Seriously, nobody wants to hear a voice message, especially from a colleague who still thinks working from home is stylish.
Managing director of connectivity at Sky, Ben Case, said: “Our research shows that our phone habits say more about us than we realise and can even make or break a relationship.”
Sure, you may say the poll was done in Britain. Who cares? Texting doesn’t know boundaries; it’s a bit like the world John Lennon had imagined: Imagine there’s no countries / It isn’t hard to do.
What’s your go-to emoji while messaging on WhatsApp? Tell t2@abp.in
Gen Z phone icks
1. Late replies
2. Saying “lol” in every message
3. Playing loud video or voice notes in public
4. Overusing emoji or GIFs
5. Texting ‘??’ after two minutes of no reply
6. Keyboard sounds left on
7. Loud ringtones or alarms
8. Replying with a thumbs up
9. Having yourself as your lockscreen
10. Double texting