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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.
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”.
Did she spell it or say “lull”? I started doing that with friends in high school and it accidentally stuck.
If he thinks dis spelling is sarcasm he’s GoNnA LoVe DiS SpElLiNg!!1!
Kinda funny seeing a post about the written word so flagrantly disregard appropriate use of punctuation.
rules of punctuation aren’t here to chain us, they’re mere guidelines
I had no idea I was clipping my own wings by avoiding horrendous run-ons.
Run-on sentences convey rambling…
I dunno… Sentence formatting to convey meaning? You could argue this is punctuation.
Language is just so much more interesting when you start ignoring all the weird, stuffy rules
I think language is like art. It’s ideal to learn the rules then brek them.
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.
Because Internet - Gretchen McCulloch
Thanks for mentioning this, I’ve added it to my tbr.
Maybe it’s because I never used Tumblr, but most of this just infuriates me. I’m sure it has a lot of meaning to those in the know, but I usually assume that if you’re typing like that then you haven’t learned how to speak in full sentences yet.
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.
Yeah, definitely seems like it’s just a particular slang/style for people in that specific group. I’ve been online for a long time now, I used txt tlk when tech limitations actually necessitated it, but swipe keyboards have been faster to use for at least a decade now so I dunno why some people still type that way!
sorry everyone can’t give you perfect essays when they write online
Typing commas, such effort
🍁🛫
