LOL? We’re all at it!
By Andy Pearson
It’s “used chiefly in electronic communications … to draw attention to a joke or humorous statement, or to express amusement”.
It is referred to with all its letters pronounced separately, but is also commonly pronounced as a word in its own right.
And now the internet slang term LOL - short for “laughing out loud” – has been added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).
It is also the subject of an enlightening BBC Online feature – http://bbc.in/fi0DfF.
Development
But what should the development of LOL and related terms such as OMG and LMAO matter to business?
Well, according the the Beeb, the OED’s Graeme Diamond says the word is common, widespread and understood.
They write: “The word serves a real purpose – it conveys tone in text, something that even the most cynical critics accept.”
It may mildly dismay language purists but it’s clearly popular in e-mails, texts and social media posts.
Widespread
Even in spoken use it has become widespread, albeit used sarcastically or in in parody.
So used at the right time and in the right place, such new elements of language should be embraced by business.
Simply, it means connecting with an audience in the right way.
Clearly you wouldn’t want lol to be penned into a contract by your corporate lawyer – but you would want it to be used when chatting light-heartedly on Facebook with a young client.
Humour
The BBC piece quotes Rob Manuel, of internet humour site b3ta. He says: “We need emotional signifiers in tweets and emails, just as conversation has laughter. LOL might make me look like a twit, but at least you know when I’m being arch.”
Ben Huh, of the Cheezburger Network of comedy sites, tells the BBC: “LOL is a tool and a toy. It’s a polite way of acknowledging someone.”
So don’t see LOL as the death of the dictionary - yes, some will see it as lazy but surely only in the way that other abbreviations have become an essential and accepted part of language.
