Usage share of the top 20 laughs since 2009

Lol is increasingly used for more than “laughing out loud.” According to McCulloch, it can soften confrontation, request sympathy, or add subtle layers of meaning. You might find it unfair to compare lol to “real” laughter, but as Mculloch points out, in some ways, lol hasn’t changed its meaning so very far from its roots in laughter. Sure, sometimes we laugh at a direct joke, something we can point at and say, ‘That’s funny.’ But there’s also nervous laughter, social laughter, and polite smiles.

Lol’s transformation is less like a shift and more like an evolution. Squirtle became Blastoise. A butter knife became a Swiss Army knife. Dancing 90’s J Lo became triple-threat J Lo? J Lol.