MONDAY MUSE (13 July 2009)
LOL
LOL is an acronym for ‘laugh out loud’ or ‘laughing out loud’. It is being
increasingly used in internet and cellular textual communication. Although,
some may also use it to mean ‘lots of love’, the majority would be using the
abbreviation to indicate their expression of mirth. However, it is a matter of
conjecture whether the person, who writes LOL as a response, is actually
laughing out aloud or only saying so.
Interestingly, ‘LOL’ as a native Dutch word means ‘fun’ while in Welsh, it
means ‘nonsense’. But as an acronym it is open to as many meanings as laughter
can have… it can express glee, joy, delight, amusement, contempt, sarcasm,
scorn, ridicule, derision, etc, etc. hence, ‘LOL’ does not tell us of a
singular, specific response.
It is pertinent to note that e-communication can obscure real responses under
generalized initializations. Surely it would be better to receive responses
such as ‘that’s funny’ or ‘that’s not funny’ or ‘what’s so funny’ or ‘so that’s
funny according to you’, so on and so forth instead of a repetitive ‘LOL’ which
is open to different analysis. Exceptions would include cases when both persons
on either side of the message are in tune with only one understanding of the
term that is used.
Acronyms are wonderful things as long as they are singular in meaning. After
all, it is more important to express rather than impress. Our communication
will be better if our responses do not get expressed in generalizations which
may not reflect our real response.
To BE BETTER at communicating our true feelings
We must avoid expressions with multiple meanings
:-) Pravin K. Sabnis
Goa, India.
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