My mum thinks lol means Lots of Love. Hard to read her message “Nana not doing too well lol”

It makes people sound uneducated. That's what I think when I hear it. But, I will say, in texting or commenting, I do type "LOL" if it is truly 'laugh out loud' funny to ME. I don't type it just to type it.

Agree!! Stupid talk. And OM_, is offensive to my senses as I don't take the Lord's name in vain. But I don't generally reveal that, because I'm then on a soapbox. No, I'm being true to what I feel is respectful vernacular regarding Deity.

I think let people have fun with it. Life is too short to worry about things like this.

It’s a completely new language for me. As flutter by says her favourite aunt says LOL is lots of love, so do I!

A favourite aunt of mine ends her letters with LOL. To her it means lots of love :)

this just seems like an overreaction. it’s really not that deep

Having done 11 years at Catholic school my sisters and similar friends and I are in the habit (get it) of saying "Hail Mary full of Grace" , "Give me Strength!" "Mother of Mercy!" and of course "Oh My God!". Just remembering another a friend says..."Jesus Wept". My fave from a fellow Rewardian here is LMFAO..haha.Edited 29-Nov-22 20:34pm

it is my brain work out making sense of some of it .... like random

Umm, eer, uhh, awesome, unprecedented, gross.

I don’t understand half of them, especially if it’s just one letter..! How can it make sense to anyone ? It’s annoying and stupid in my eyes

so

LOL

too cool for school

I don't understand the question! LOL I do wonder if our language is changing. Kids aren't even taught how to write script which I think is so wrong and even sad! How are they supposed to sign their names, or do they just make an X? I do wonder if OMG is blasphemy. In my mind it isn't, but it bothers me if it is. I would never say that if it was. It can also be Oh My Gosh, right? I've been online for many, many years so I know most of the abbreviations, but many people don't. I try not to use any of the ones that people don't use, but it is kind of like the "f" word. I hear it so much that I wonder if it is even a swear word anymore. After all, it is just a word that's been around probably since man learned to talk. Why do we think certain words are swear words and others that are more offensive aren't? If we ignore the f-bombs, they lose their power, but why use them so often. I consider it a matter of respect to not use them around people I do have respect for. If you wouldn't say it to your pastor, it probably isn't a good word. I am just rambling again! I never wanted to swear around my parents, and when I was probably 14 or so, my mother begged me to say a swear word. I was so embarrassed because I swore like a sailor around my friends like most teenagers. Mom always knew more about me than I did. Why she wanted me to swear was weird to me! Finally, as I grew older, I did swear and smoke in front of my parents. I guess it was just growing up. I quit smoking, but cussing is something I need to work on! Love you, Mom!

With so many abbreviations we may eventually not be able to understand each other. OMG LOL

Every generation has to have something of its own. For the 50"s it was music, dress and speech. For the 60"s it was music, dress and speech. On and on, every decade, its music, dress and speech. I just try and go with the flow. My parents didn't understand me, I don't understand my kids, and they won't understand their kids. My question is "Did the Neanderthals go through this too?"

I think that the common use of TLAs is the modern form of shorthand used when my parents were young, back in the day. My Mom was a typist in the Forties and used shorthand all the time. It was taught in school. When I was in elementary school, we spent hours practicing cursive, now it is no longer even taught! What is next? back to Hieroglyphics?

Initialeeze is a viral disease lol!

What sort of oil is that, are you rubbing them out or shortening them or???

its like its like

I think you should consider how you have used the word 'its'. - The word 'its' means belonging to something. Example: The cow flicked its tail at a fly. - 'It's like...' is an abbreviation of 'It is like...' and should be used in your discussion about words, sayings and phrases. - Also consider that abbreviations and contractions can vary. Example: 'OMG' can also stand for 'Oh my gosh! and similarly ''JEEZ! can stand for both 'JESUS!' or 'JEEPERS!', depending on who taught you, where you live, context etc. - English language is known to be one of the hardest languages to learn because it has so many variations and exceptions to the rules. - I have no idea why you mentioned Monkey Pox. Edited 29-Nov-22 13:59pm

Abbreviations work well on Bingo

I try not to use blasphemy

Everyone I text with uses abbreviations all the time, and it may be contagious, because I do see me using them more and more as time goes on, but I took longer to adopt the habit than everybody else I know. I definitely resisted LOL though in particular, for the longest time. I was against it, because we already had HAHA, what was wrong with that? One more letter shouldn't make any difference, so why did we need LOL? But actually, LOL started out being used as an alternative to HAHA, but not interchangeably! There was the standard HAHA that we always had (along with variants such as hehee, heh heh, etc), but then we started using LOL to distinguish something that was funny enough to literally make you LAUGH OUT LOUD. Which is fairly rare, you know, to be chatting online with someone in a quiet room by yourself, and suddenly they say something funny enough to make you LAUGH OUT LOUD. And of course, they can't hear you laughing, but you want them to know that they made you laugh out loud, so that's why we needed LOL, to toss in there whenever you LOL'd and wanted whoever you were chatting with to know it! HAHA was fine, but not used in the same way. And so we needed LOL at first, along with HAHA. But THEN (now) everyone just throws LOL at the end of every line they text, it seems sometimes. They are certainly NOT laughing out loud every time they use it, that much I know for sure, and that's what I don't like. If you're not laughing out loud for real, then I wish we'd just use HAHA or HAH or HA or even HARDY HAR HAR, many variations each with their own nuance, something for every occasion. And save LOL for when you are actually laughing out loud.But it's too late for that now. It's too far gone. It's been corrupted to the point that LOL is used when you're nowhere near laughing out loud, sometimes used when you're not even smiling. LOLEdited 29-Nov-22 12:49pm

I think it's one of the symptoms of the cyber age, where everything becomes initialed, and where people start to sound like parrots with everything they say.

Welcome to the screen generation.

Acronyms or abbreviations remind me a lot of Acrostic poems : the first letter of each line, spell out some clever words. This classic poem from Lewis Carroll, 'A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky, spells out ALICE PLEASANCE LIDDELL. Woohoo! Good Old AIW : Alice In Wonderland ;-) A boat beneath a sunny sky, Lingering onward dreamily In an evening of July — Children three that nestle near, Eager eye and willing ear, Pleased a simple tale to hear — Long has paled that sunny sky: Echoes fade and memories die: Autumn frosts have slain July. Still she haunts me,phantomwise, Alice moving under skies Never seen by waking eyes.Children yet, the tale to hear,Eager eye and willing ear, Lovingly shall nestle near. In a Wonderland they lie, Dreaming as the days go by, Dreaming as the summers die:Ever drifting down the stream — Lingering in the golden gleam — Life, what is it but a dream?

WTF?

FYI (for your information), a woman in America wrote a book in this form of expression and of course the literature world thinks she is a genius. Well in all honesty I would not be able to read the book because I am not up on this kind of lingo. It is just the way the young ones talk today and in another 50 years they'll be doing some thing totally different again, I guess we are just showing our ages because I do not understand what most of the world is talking about and that's fine by me. I am happy in my little bubble and don't want or need for much in my life.

It’s lazy people doing what they think is great

WTF.

I do not understand (IDNU). I suppose that is just my bad!

If OMG is Oh My God then LOL could also be interpreted as Love Our Lord!!??

I used a Telex machine in the early 1990s

Lots of love LOL Oh my girl OMG

Yes APB ( oops is that an abbreviation?) I do like a little omg and lol from time to time but IDK is a new one for me .(.I don't know) they r becoming fast and furious. My fave was going through a real estate listing wondering what the hell a SLUG was that came with the property? Turns out a single lock up garage. Dating sites apparently usually ask for someone with a GSOH. Good sense of humour. I myself could quite like a younger one with a FHOH ...full head of hair ..! Think the comedienne teenage Kylie Mole character from the Comedy Company summed it all up quite nicely ,whilst chewing her gum.. " she goes , she goes ..She just went!!"Edited 29-Nov-22 21:27pm

Who recalls getting a letter with SWALT on the back. Sealed with a loving kiss

Acronyms. Not a big deal if they evolve.

well I thought it was lots of love! Silly me.

I am an older Aussie, but I find myself looking for shortcuts when texting. typing out the whole sentence is tiresome, I mean, who wants to type " Heavens's above, that was so funny I'm still laughing" when they can just say OMG, LOL. Of cgourse I would like something more dignified for us oldies, perhaps OMG, TSF(oh my god, thats so funny)

Only a few words are ok with me

I think you lack pizza…….lol…..OMG……Margherita…. mmmmmmmmmmmmm

A lot of these initials for things has arisen with the use of mobiles. It makes it much easier & qicker to text just initials than separate words. The kids seem to understand what they all stand for. I often have to resort to looking them up to know what they mean. Where it does annoy me most is when reading the Newspapers.

OMG! It's like who cares LOL ;)

Ah & Um in between every couple of words drives me insane.

We don't use those inane terms at all. The phrase which really annoys me is that absurd "You know" phrase which so many people scatter around their conversations like confetti, such as "I have to tell you something, you know, we, you know, went to the football, you know, and our team lost, you know ....."! Why do they do this? Why do so-called "Journalists" do it? Surely they, all of whom have, apparently been taught how to use language whilst at University, realise that the phrase is meaningless, ungrammatical nonsense when used in this way?Edited 29-Nov-22 09:36am

that occured in 2002.

I've never used such things, though I always have to put up with readings them I usually ignore. In truth some one should decide by them selves if they find something funny, being told it is funny is even less funny. The thing that really makes me wonder is accent when speaking English. Since there was a time one when I was in Germany, when I had 2 Japanese people run up to me and say "Boy are we glad we found you. We have been in Europe for a few months: and they told me the countries they had been in the main one being England then they said "we haven't been able to find anyone who speaks English". then they were explaining that they needed help to get to the Airport. So for me I knew they hadn't really explained things properly. So then I Gave them a full explanation of what an accent ment by saying a sentence in an Australian accent, and as many other accent as I could. Then gave them help in advice to were they needed to go. My buest guess there was they had an Australian as an English teacher in Japan. Now I have my Partner with a different accent in with me everyday, and unfortunately I often misundertand her words and get miss led in to another sentence, which always makes her so angry.

I dont know anyone who uses these abbreviations. I have or had seen sometimes on facebook, but generally younger kids who didnt appear to have a life apart from facebook. So I cant really comment

It is sad really. Language can be so colourful and descriptive but it has been reduced to letters or even spoken grunts.

I fondly remember when the complexities of our language were in common usage, and understood by the majority of people, Unfortunately the dumbing down by everything American, has reduced our general communication skills to that of a four year old or the porevious century

can be open to misinterpretation..... I remember reading about a message regards the death of a family member... which ended with LOL.... the person sending the message thought it stood for Lots of Love....

TRUE

True

I like it

As an 80-year-old,I am not up to all this sort of thing.

people are starting to mumble when they talk, and its bloody hard to understand some of the abbreviation they use, specially when texting

It is the lazy way of talking

More and more the language becomes an expression of emotion and stupidity rather than of logic and common sense.

There's alot of redundancy and disrespect towards the English language.. these "Rappers" and not just them but, alot of inner-city kids even adults seem to mispronounce the simplest words even..... i.e. aks instead of ask is the most common. Or how about, sumpin instead of something....? It drives me nuts! I just refuse to speak to someone who talks like that..simple

my grandchildren 3 and 5, say oh my golly gosh, not too sure where it came from but cute as hell, but you are right the language we learned at school is long gone,a tablet used to be a stone slab now its a computer, a tweet was a bird noise now it's a short message, viral was a bug you caught, now it means you are popular, sick meant you were sick, now it means you have something good,a troll was a dwarf, now it means you are a creepy person on the net, you can go on,but your right apb,leave the big guy up stairs aloneEdited 29-Nov-22 07:20am

This is an Americanism and as such I purposely don't use it nor do my children.

If it can be abbreviated it is abbreviated. You go to the pharmacy to pick up your meds. You go online to get merch. OMG does it cost that much?? Somewhere out there are people just looking for words that can be abbreviated. It's like... you know... like...

A lot of rubbish to me.

OMG, WTF, IMHO, GAL, LOL..Edited 29-Nov-22 06:43am

that aren't all that serious to me.

LOL!!! ;-D

SILLY....SILLY...SILLLY...

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO NORMAL???????

I am in complete agreement with you on all points.

Sure

What on earth are you ranting about??

It’s interesting. Language tries to simplify what we want to say - or we want to simplify what we want to say? Too much abbreviation...confusing.

same old stuff!!

Apropos your last sentence I heard today the new abbreviation is “mpox”. A few years ago I heard of a woman who was mortified when she found out the LOL she put on a “with sympathy” card did not mean “lots of love”.Edited 29-Nov-22 02:18am

I am 'not' a 'grammarian'!

Our younger generation use something like 10000 less words than their grandparents and yes it is all abbreviated to letters and the like like business drives me nuts. Still the constant swearing is something I really dislike. They cannot say one sentence without this swear word or words. Lack of communicative language in my view.

I don't think it is that big a deal really.