I seldom if ever ‘lol’. Of course I do encounter things on the web that make me laugh – it’d be a pretty scary place if you couldn’t laugh at it – but the expression itself feels wrong, so I usually avoid it.

In part due to overuse. A lot of our, shall we say less cerebral friends, lol like it’s a nervous tic, appending each and every comment with a lol. If you paid attention to these, you’d get the impression that the net had canned laughter, which would never do.

I’m also unsure of the effect you’re supposed to have in your head when you encounter a lol. I suspect that those that use them a lot think it’s a wry, winsome smile. For me, however, it reflexively translates as a daft gurgle. This may well reflect more on me than the rest of the world…

But the lol is useful – a necessary evil?

Some have attempted to replace the lol with hahaha. It makes me feel like a character in a Batman comic. I suppose there are worse things. Hehehe turns the whole thread into a Beano strip. Or it could be a cartoon witch.

Don’t get me started in rofl. If you really were… Let me put it like this. It reminds me of a doctor I had many years back. A no-nonsense Northern Irish GP, he told it how it was. He prescribed me with some strong pills, which as one potential side effect had seizures. “So what do I do if I’m having a fit?” I asked. “Oh, I should phone the hospital…”

I guess, like my Irish doctor, we all find our laughs where we can…