LOL

Recently, I've started to LOL. I resisted it for years on principle. In all my digital communication, I would write out my words and then tack on "Ha" or "Ha Ha" so that it was clear that my tone was meant to be lighthearted and/or self-mocking. 

But I never LOL'd.

When something is wildly popular or has become commonplace, I have this natural resistance to embracing it fully. I suspect that part of it is that I hate being disappointed when things don't live up to inflated expectations but the other part is that I am just a little bit of a contrarian. So, while the world LOL'd, I Ha Ha'd like my life depended on it. It made me feel like a typewriter in a world full of computers, a quill in a room of smart pens, June Cleaver in a car with a bunch of wine moms.

But in the past month or so, I started to LOL. The first time, I was just too lazy to type out Ha Ha. LOL has two less characters if you include the space, so, this was time and energy conservation at its finest. Why waste your time on extra characters in Ha Ha when you can waste 100x more playing Candy Crush until you dream of color bombs? But slowly, LOL and it's even lower energy cousin, lol, started slipping into things with increased frequency. Sure, I still Ha Ha'd but LOLing became the text equivalent of a boozy smirk and shrug. LOLing felt less earnest and I liked feeling less electronically earnest. It made me feel reckless, like a kid experimenting with swearing or like a Rebel Without HaHas. 

Now, I have landed somewhere in the middle with my Ha Ha'ing and LOLing and have embraced the fact that I am bi-laughterous. Maybe we all are. 

If you've gotten this far, you may be wondering, "What the hell is she talking about?" Me too, friend. Me too. LOL. Ha Ha.