As abbreviations and l33t-speak dominate conversations on the Internet, words tend to get shorter. “Be right back” becomes, “brb,” for example. What is so peculiar and somewhat bothersome to me is how “laugh out loud” was chosen to be abbreviated as “LOL” while the far superior and shorter “ha” is not as popular.
Similarly, the variants ROTFL (“rolling on the floor laughing”), ROTFLMAO (“rolling on the floor laughing my a** off”) are also annoyingly long. Why not just “hahahahaha”?
My message to Internet users everywhere: STOP USING “LOL,” “ROTFL,” “ROTFLMAO” and any other abbreviation that conveys laughter. “Ha” is accurate, short, and has thousands of years of history behind it.
SPECIAL NOTE TO EMILY, AUSTIN AND RYANN: tell your friends! “Ha” is all you need! “LOL” must DIE!!!
may I also suggest “heh” for those instances where something is not laugh out loud (lol) funny, yet you would still like to acknowledge that the other person has said something witty and/or clever?