Giovedì 27 Nov 2008, 2:15

Once, the Internet was a serious place. Then someone thought: "Wouldn't it be nice if we could express emotions in this cold world of written text?" So they realised, if you write a colon followed by a parenthesis, the reader wil see a smile when tilting their head 90 degrees and know the sender wrote it with a smile on their face. This was fine, and smileys prevailed.

But then someone else said: "What about the really funny stuff, the things that made you laugh out loud?" So they decided they could write "LOL" whenever that happened. This was also fine. For a while. But then the LOLs would become so common that their power was reduced to that of a humble punctuation cluster known as a smiley. So the Internet people needed stronger stuff, and things would get really out of hand. People would ROFL or, God forbid, PMSL about anything even remotely funny. Honestly, I've chatted with a lady who apparently wet herself writing each and every sentence.

Now do a simple exercise. When you see someone use these acronyms, visualise them doing exactly what the acronym stands for. You'll notice how ridiculous this is. Ridiculous in a way that won't make you LOL. Next step: become aware of these acronyms and use only ones that accurately describe your feelings. Smileys are fine. Use them when you're smiling. LOL when something really made you laugh out loud. Try not to ROFLMAO too often as you might hurt yourself while falling off the chair. And after you've climbed back up, you might instead take the time to write properly: "I am wracked with such hearty guffaws that in addition to rolling to and fro on the floor, my posterior has separated itself from my body."