• CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    I had to teach myself to say lol all the time via text and it absolutely helps with tone, so does using emoji which was something else I had to force myself to do. I seem less mature I guess but I don’t come off as a blunt asshole anymore and my conversations go a lot smoother

    • Monte_Crisco@thelemmy.club
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      6 days ago

      I’m afraid I’ve used “lol” so much for so many years that this is exactly how people will interpret my texts if I suddenly stop now.

    • mika_mika@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      I have been called weird or passive aggressive for using punctuation in my text messages. Why do we cater to these people? Why do I care about the opinion of someone who takes to heart whether I use an exclamation point or period at the end of a sentence? It should have been their problem to learn to not make assumptions.

      • SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        5 days ago

        Because you’re not following social conventions

        It’s also up to you to learn to work with others, conversation is a cooperative game. If you don’t give enough signs, people don’t know the tone you are intending to give over text, because body language and verbal tone is missing. That’s the purpose of the informal conventions

        It’s your problem to learn too

      • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        I’m a Xennial? Born in 1980 so last year of Gen X, first year of Millennials?

        I learned back in the early '90s that “lol” made my lighthearted comments appear lighthearted, and not cynical.

  • Soulphite@reddthat.com
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    6 days ago

    Am millennial and have never once used that acronym. I always just type “haha” instead… haha

    • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      6 days ago

      Am millenial, I’ve used both lol and haha, since… I dunno, 1996?

      I distinctly remember the first time I accidentally said ‘lol’ outloud, as a single syllable, at the end of a sentence.

      • Obinice@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        Millennials were ABSOLUTELY all about the lols, I can assure you. It was the most widely used acronym everywhere (second being brb, I would wager).

        We roflcopter’d and roflmao’d with the best of em! lol

      • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        I used/use it a lot, became the standard when I was on AIM.

        Mostly I feel people use it for tone and switch between the two. Then again I also respond with k too often apparently and have had spouses bring it up to me. “I’m going to pick up hot dog buns on the way home” k is apparently not always the proper response to such things apparently.

        K, lol, cool/kool, alright, nice, oh… Apparently make up a lot of what she calls my NPC responses.

        It’s not that I don’t care, it’s that there really isn’t a reason for me to send a flushed out response while I’m in a rush and or trying to respond at a red light. I’ll see them soon, if i thought something else should be picked up at the store when they were there id either say so or call if I thought it warranted a quick discussion.

        If I ask do you want tacos, sure is a perfectly valid response, we’ve shared a bed for 5 years… if I don’t know what you do and don’t like on a taco I wasn’t paying attention, if you want something you usually wouldn’t, then it makes sense to say more

    • Dozzi92@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      But plenty of millennials did for sure. I’m 1987, was never a loler myself, but am certainly familiar enough with it.

      And admittedly, I have used it. My buddy and I used to sit in his room playing red alert 2, and one of us would do something dumb and the other would type “lol,” and then look across the room with a straight face. So I always imagined someone typing lol to be doing so with a completely straight face, the complete opposite of laughing out loud.

    • FosterMolasses@leminal.space
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      6 days ago

      I tend to reserve haha for conveying mildly interesting observations in a nonthreatening manner

      “You must be their best customer to know that, haha”

      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        6 days ago

        Same.

        ‘haha’ is more polite/cordial, more passive and may indicate essentially nervous laughter

        ‘lol’ is more blunt/informal, more aggressive and may potentially indicate mockery

    • CMLVI@piefed.social
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      6 days ago

      I did “haha” up until somewhat recently. I started using lol sarcastically, and it quickly bled over into the haha usage. I can’t break the habit either…

  • DiabolicalBird@lemmy.ca
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    6 days ago

    Tone is an absolute bitch to convey properly over text, if you don’t add indicators it’s up to the reader to determine the tone you’re using. Miscommunication causes larger problems. Using lol helps indicate a lighter tone so people don’t think I’m pissed off or grumpy when I’m not

  • rarWars@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    5 days ago

    I’m Gen Z and I use lol as punctuation at the end of a sentence to indicate a lighthearted tone, just like a ? or ! indicate their respective tones. It’s very useful, and I think I’ll keep using it lol

    It fills a similar niche to tone tags but somewhat less intrusive imo.

    • karashta@sopuli.xyz
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      5 days ago

      This has how it’s always been used as far as I have seen as an older millennial, aside from being used in a form of irony.

      It’s an upbeat tone indicator. But it’s not the same as sending someone a smile with your text.

      It fills a useful niche. Just like /s also does.

  • Klear@quokk.au
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    6 days ago

    What I want… No. What I need is a browser extension that would change every “lol” on every page into a small picture of a TIE Fighter. It would make that flyby noise if you put your mouse over it and you could blow it up by clicking.

      • zout@fedia.io
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        6 days ago

        Your comment triggered me to ask an LLM to create it, and it came up with something. I’m not going to test it though, so we’ll never know if it works. I’d advise anyone not to try it. It gave links to an image and a sound file that gave a 404 error. LLM output:

        Here’s a complete Firefox extension that replaces the text “lol” with a TIE Fighter image, plays a sound on hover, and changes the image on click.

        🔧 Firefox Extension: “Lol to TIE Fighter”

        1. Manifest File (manifest.json)
        {
          "manifest_version": 2,
          "name": "Lol to TIE Fighter",
          "version": "1.0",
          "description": "Replaces 'lol' with a TIE Fighter image and plays sound on hover.",
          "permissions": [
            "activeScript",
            "scripting",
            "https://example.com/*"
          ],
          "content_scripts": [
            {
              "matches": ["<all_urls>"],
              "js": ["content.js"]
            }
          ],
          "background": {
            "scripts": ["background.js"]
          },
          "options_page": "options.html"
        }
        
        1. Content Script (content.js)
        document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function() {
          function replaceTextNodesWithImages() {
            const walker = document.createTreeWalker(document.body, NodeFilter.SHOW_TEXT, null, false);
            let node;
            while (node = walker.nextNode()) {
              if (node.textContent.includes("lol")) {
                const img = document.createElement("img");
                img.src = "https://example.com/tie-fighter.png"; // Replace with your image URL
                img.style.width = "20px";
                img.style.height = "20px";
                img.style.display = "inline-block";
                img.style.cursor = "pointer";
        
                // Sound on hover
                img.addEventListener("mouseover", () => playSound());
        
                // Blow up on click
                img.addEventListener("click", () => blowUp(img));
        
                node.replaceWith(img);
              }
            }
          }
        
          replaceTextNodesWithImages();
        });
        
        function playSound() {
          const audio = new Audio("https://example.com/sound.mp3"); // Replace with your sound URL
          audio.play();
        }
        
        function blowUp(img) {
          img.src = "https://example.com/blowup.png"; // Replace with a larger image or "none"
          img.style.width = "40px";
          img.style.height = "40px";
        }
        
        1. Image and Sound Requirements TIE Fighter Image: Replace the URL in content.js with a public domain image. Example: TIE Fighter Image from Wikipedia Sound Effect: Replace the URL with a .mp3 file hosted on your server. Example: Sound Effect from FreeSound.org 🛠️ How to Use Create the files: manifest.json content.js Load the extension in Firefox: Go to about:debugging in Firefox. Click Add Extension and select the folder with your files. Test on any website with “lol” text. ⚠️ Notes Image/Sound URLs: Replace the URLs with your own hosted or public domain assets. Performance: This script runs on every page, so consider optimizing for large sites. Security: Ensure the image and sound URLs are secure to avoid errors. This extension replaces “lol” with a TIE Fighter image, plays a sound on hover, and expands the image on click. Adjust the URLs to match your assets!
        • bountygiver [any]@lemmy.ml
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          6 days ago

          your LLM misunderstood the request, it is going to replace the entire sentence (or the entire comment/post) into the TIE fighter if it contains the “lol”, not just the part where it is “lol”. Also the “blow up” is not explosion, it thought it means “making it big”

  • RejZoR@lemmy.ml
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    6 days ago

    Lol, no.

    Also this is millennial thing, not GenX. I don’t know anyone from that generation that would use lol.

    • restingOface@quokk.auOP
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      6 days ago

      Also this is millennial thing, not GenX.

      Did someone say GenX? Or am I misreading your comment here?

        • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          6 days ago

          I keep seeing zoomers use this and it keeps confusing the shit out of me, because half the time, it just looks like crying, not laughing-crying.

          Maybe they’re just bad at it and using the wrong emoji half the time? idfk

            • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              6 days ago

              I genuinely do not know, but I keep running into that, where they just use the crying emoji and they tell me it means they’re laughing so hard they cried (not literally of course but w/e)… even though there actually is a laughing-crying emoji.

              I’m going to yell at clouds tiktok, its probably cloud’s tiktok’s fault, somehow.

              EDIT:

              like, I tell a joke, they respond with a crying emoji, I am confused and apologetic because I think I hurt their feelings and they are just sad crying… nope.

              Nope they actually liked the joke.

              This has happened to me a number of times in the last 6-9 months, with different people.

              • Fisch@discuss.tchncs.de
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                6 days ago

                I am actually gen z and the “😂” has simply become cringe because older people overused it so much and I guess that’s why we switched to “😭”

                It’s also interesting to me how you still see it as crying because my brain just doesn’t make that connection at all anymore

                • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  6 days ago

                  I genuienly appreciate the explanation, that makes sense.

                  2 reasons unc here sees them similarly:

                  A ) I barely ever use emojis

                  Many millennials grew up using

                  *-*

                  =D

                  :<

                  0.0

                  >=[

                  … style constructions to represent emotions / facial expressions in text.

                  I’m used to those, I’m not used to emojis.

                  B ) I’m just actually slowly losing visual acuity.

                  I’m getting oooollldddd.

                  I’ve got an astigmatism now, and I tend to only wear my glasses when I absolutely need to.

                  So I have to squint or put on my glasses to make out variations in emojis, sometimes.

              • sem@piefed.blahaj.zone
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                6 days ago

                It’s because the regular laugh crying emoji got watered down so if something was really fuuny, one has to escalate.

              • mimavox@piefed.social
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                6 days ago

                Maybe because it isn’t cool to use 😂? It has a bit of a bad rep in that it’s seen as a boomer-emoji, I think.

          • FosterMolasses@leminal.space
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            6 days ago

            I’ve begun to find it grating, because somewhere along the line it seems to have been co-opted by people who exclusively communicate through passive aggression online lol

            So it’s no longer “Who did this 😭😭”

            And more like “Why are you buying takeout after complaining about minimum wage being low 😭😭”

          • TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works
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            6 days ago

            It’s like when it’s sad but also funny, so like, you’re laughing, but also crying in a “this is too real” kinda way

            At least that’s how me and my friends seem to use it :p