..too often really do my head in.. its become a rhythmic tic in most cases..e.g. ' well I went to the pub..lol..got chattin to this bloke..lol..so & so..blah blah..lol' fcuk off you morons. I was told by a friend who works in IT that one of his fellow employees actually finished a spoken sentence with the word 'lol'..surely a stoning in public would be less than fitting for this. anyone for newspeak??????? bastardisation of the english language is upon us.

LMAO:ROFL:URARSOL

Do you work in IT? I think you most probably do..

who ? me or Aradon ?

I use lol quite a bit, but not in everything!

I use it a fair bit and smilies a lot., mainly because I'm a smiley, laugh out loud type of person

LOL

lol is not necessarily genuine, posing the rhetorical question "how many people are actually 'laughing out loud' when they send LOL?".

yeah but its quicker than typing chuckle; snigger; smiling; just spat coffee all over ma keyboard.....etc
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I think most people tend to use LOL to signify an amusing moment or to reassure they are not being serious over something. Like for example 'You're an idiot LOL' basically means I'm only joking don't be offended.

Like Bernard says, the use of LOL doesn't necessarily mean they are physically Laughing Out Loud.

I use it when someone says something that I find amusing but not particularly funny as I don't think theres an acronym for 'I like that it's amusing, I'm smiling' although a smiley would suffice it doesn't have the same effect IMO.

What you've got to remember here is writing something can be taken a number of different ways as there is no tone to text like there is when talking to someone face to face or over the phone. So often you have to put things like LOL or smileys to try and inflect your tone. The example 'You're an idiot' without LOL could be taken seriously when it wasn't meant to be. I might of been smiling when I wrote it but whoever I said it to may think differently.

You're very eloquent MrRaven You have put that so well

My initial furore into the virtual word was a harsh one so I learnt to use acronyms and emoticons quite quickly. I have a sarcastic wit at times and all too often it can be taken the wrong way when communicating like this so for me 'lol' and smilies are a great way of softening my words. Long may the LOL last