The 21st Century LOL!

‘m supposed to be on Vacation, or Hiatus, or something– but something got to me yesterday, and I decided I had to rant about it. It was this chat with some ‘new friend’ that only busted the ‘lol’ word just once throughout our first-time lengthy conversation, and my muses went downright in love with him without question! Why? I mean, that’s someone you can TRUST!

For those of us that chat a lot, scratch that! All of us are sure familiar with the LOL word. For the sake of the non- existent readers that don’t know the word, it means Laugh Out Loud. I have come in contact with that word and its variants (and by ‘variants’, I mean LOOL, LLOL, LOOOOOOL, Lols, Lolz, and the works!) in virtually every chat more than I have come across an ‘hello’ or ‘hi’. Yes, it’s that serious– and it has got to the extent that we (myself inclusive) just type out the word unconsciously, without meaning it, EVERYTIME we read something that our minds tell us the sender meant in a funny way but are just too lazy to laugh about, or JUST EVERYTIME the spirit leads us. Don’t sue me yet. What’s worse, I can’t count the number of times I have spelt LOL, rather than laugh when talking to a friend in an actual conversation (phone and physical meetings alike)! Would you blame me? No, your pot wouldn’t dare call my kettle black!

You know I once got busted back in school when I was chatting with a friend (through 2go, I think) and typed out the word at something he said without actually laughing, and he stepped in behind me just then with something that looked like hurt in his eyes as he said something that went like ‘bhet I didn’t hear you laugh.’ My heart almost broke. Lool! (Okay, I smiled a bit while typing this LOOL. Imagine?! I mean, that’s the height of it) After that day, we devised other words to convey our actual feelings and actions over the phone, in place of LOOL. I remember we used the word SALTS. Wanna guess what that means? Try! Btw, I miss the dude a little. 😀

So back to the basics– I can’t be bothered much about the fashion of things as regarding this word these days anyway, because ‘ve got my mind made up. This is the case. If you use LOOL for everyone you chat with everyday, you shouldn’t be trusted! Shikena! This is just me selling us out to ourselves, thank me later. I mean, think about it! There are different kinds of people everywhere- the funny, the annoying, and the nerve-crackers- and you get to meet the mix everywhere on social media! So, you mean to tell me all these people can make you Laugh Out Loud? C’mon, even Basket mouth tells some jokes sometimes, and all I can spare is a smile. Quit playing nice, and let’s be real for once! Imagine I tell you I like your hair, and you lool me before saying thanks… and ‘m like okay, what did I miss? You get the drift now? Once, mum saw my dp- a picture of me at school- and said it looked nice, and I almost went LOOL on her because I had a big smile on my face when I read her chat… thinking back now, ‘m like- ‘oh no, you di’int!’— You know?! It’s just crazy.

Going by this assessment, I now know whether ‘m TRUSTWORTHY or not… test yasevs! What is your conscience telling you? Mbok, talk true!

LOOOL (okay, this one is almost as real as it looks), what do y’all think about the 21st Century LOL. If you ask me, I think it changed from “Laugh Out Loud” to “I Almost Laughed”.

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© The Short Black Girl, 2015.