• ch00f@lemmy.worldEnglish
    27·
    3 months ago

    I once had a conversation with my girlfriend where she didn’t get a joke. I had to explain it to her and when she got it she said “oh, yeah. lol”

    But the “lol” was said like the way you’d say “right” or “got it.”

    “lol” expressed that it was funny, but the tone expressed understanding.

    • southsamurai@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      10·
      3 months ago

      I remember the first time I said lol out loud.

      It was strange, because I wasn’t even a fan of it to begin with, but it snuck into my head, and one Christmas, I was talking with a cousin telling a story, and said that I “loled”.

  • Panamalt@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    81·
    3 months ago

    Language is just so much more interesting when you start ignoring all the weird, stuffy rules

  • halyk.the.red@lemmy.mlEnglish
    103·
    3 months ago

    Kinda funny seeing a post about the written word so flagrantly disregard appropriate use of punctuation.

    • other_cat@lemmy.zipEnglish
      5·
      3 months ago

      I think it’s less of a Tumblr thing and more of a “how much time do you spend online talking to people” thing. Or maybe more of an instant messenger and tumblr just has a lot of that demographic. Most of my friend group is online, and has been for decades now, so I lean more into what the OP is saying because it’s true–it is very difficult to convey tone through words alone, and playing with spelling and grammar and diction creates a more nuanced language. That said it is reliant that the audience you’re engaging with have that same understanding. I’ve talked to some people through text who gave me the same reaction you have, and they were people I didn’t regularly engage with. The in-language probably made sense to them and their friends though.

  • ggtdbz@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    3·
    3 months ago

    I haven’t read it, but someone looked into this type of thing and wrote a book called Because the Internet.

    I think the author is a linguist but I don’t remember.

    • Okokimup@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      Because Internet - Gretchen McCulloch

      Thanks for mentioning this, I’ve added it to my tbr.