How did we get here? How did we get to the point where the phrase “for the lulz” means something that most of my readership may actually understand without having to look it up on Urban Dictionary?
It’s been a long strange path from Abraham Lincoln’s first smiley to the widespread use and acceptance of LOL in online chats to the smaller-spread and begrudging use of LOL in actual speech to the somewhat wider spread of the reach of the words (phrases?) “lolz” and “rofl” – the second pronounced like waffle with an r for the uninitiated.
I’m not sure when it became OK for people to say Internet chat acronyms, but I think it has happened for our generation. It’s not frowned upon as much as it was perhaps only five years ago, and it can often be used as a way to subtlely differentiate between true laughter and a kind of snarkier that’s-not-really-funny laughter.
Sidebar: I just saw six adults dance ballet in mouse costumes.
I’m not saying that I’m against using Internet speak in our vernacular. I used to think that it was a crude way to use our language, but it’s really a different form of expression. It’s a way of bonding with people who have spent as much time online as you have. It’s an inside joke for an entire generation. It’s, even, in some senses, a tiny form of rebellion against those strict rules of the language you were taught in school.
So the next time someone actually says OMG or FTW instead the actual words (saving no actual time, as the phrases contain the same amount of syllables either way), don’t roll your eyes at them. Embrace it. Ask if you can has a cheezburger.
