LOL: Did You Really Or Are You Just Saying That?

My husband is not very computer savvy.  I'm no genius, but I'm better than him.  So when he was out of town and I tried to Skype him, his microphone wasn't working (because it was turned off).

There's no talking him through that, I just have to fix it when he gets home.

So, we could see each other via the camera, but we had to type our conversation.  I typed something I thought was funny.  He knew that I meant it to be funny and typed "lol".

"No you didn't," I typed.

"What?" he asked.

"You didn't 'lol'", I typed back.

"What are you talking about?" he wonders with his keyboard with a confused face on the screen.

"I can see you!"  I answered.  "You didn't LOL!"

Then he did.

How many times is that term "lol" used every day and how many people actually mean it?  Is it something as a society we just say/type as a quick response to something we care little about?

I guess I'm a little confused.  Maybe I'm just getting old.

I use that term.  As well as "lmao".  When I lmao, it usually draws family members into my office to see what's so funny and then there's "rotf".  Granted, when I rotf, I'm usually just leaning back on the love-seat behind my desk, fallen off my seat, in stitches, but that's close enough.  

If I "lol" that means I actually laughed out loud.  Maybe I just have an easy going laugh, maybe I find a lot of things funnier than others, but I use it when I do it.

If I find it funny, but didn't actually laugh out loud then I'll type "that's funny" or just "funny", "Ha!" (or some variation of that).

So why are we slinging that term like it's an adult pacifier?  Do people use it just to shut someone else up?  To end a conversation?  Does anyone actually laugh any more?

We slaughter the English language so bad that half the time I haven't a clue what someone else is talking about.  As a society, we sound dumb when we don't take the time to type the whole word and nobody can spell anymore.  I forbid my kids to text me with acronyms., it's bad enough I have to text them at all.

That's what "LOL" looks like.  

And for the record:  It's "before" not "B4"; I speak English, not Bingo.