According to a study conducted by Facebook, it’s high time we say goodbye to LOL as more than half of the users now prefer to use ‘haha’. The research claims that about 51.4 percent use ‘haha’, next were emoji’s at 31.4 percent, followed by ‘hehe’ at 13.1 percent, while just 1.9 percent go for ‘LOL’. However, the study did not take into account direct messages.
The waning popularity of LOL can also be attributed to factors such as demographics and age. It seems old people are the few remaining who’re using LOL these days, possibly because it was famous during Internet’s early days but with the advent of emojis, it seems that they’ve become the language among youths.
Facebook’s research does suggest that age, gender and demographics indeed determine the type and lengths of laughter symbols used on its site. Young people and women prefer emoji’s while men prefer slightly longer ‘hehes’, said Facebook. While both men and women like ‘hahas’ and emoji followed by ‘hehes’ and ‘lols’.
Facebook’s study also found that across all age groups (13-70), the most commonly used are still ‘haha’, ‘hahaha’, ‘hahahaha’, followed by ‘hehe’. While the most commonly used four letters being ‘hahas’ and ‘hehes’.
Apparently, LOL was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2011, though its origins can be traced back to the 80s era. In an electronic newsletter dated May 8, 1989, LOL was found listed in a section of online jargons called ‘”MO ICONS PLEASE,’ which appears to be the earliest possible use of the word LOL. According to Professor of Linguistics, Vyv Evans, LOL was a form of an old Internet slang and grew in popularity with the rise of email and texting smartphones.
Hence, while it seems that LOL is slowly fading away, the possibility of it completely wiping out is rather bleak. As with any language, it evolves over a period of time. LOL is essentially more English whereas haha is a more natural form of universal expression, something which all humans do and hence being the likely cause for its more common usage.
