LOL

I remember when I first encountered this abbreviation "LOL" in Form 3 while chatting in mIRC. I remember chatting with net friends in “channels” and frantically changing “windows” to chats with friends. Sometimes, when I chat with too many people, I accidentally type in the wrong window. Then I have to say “Oops, typo” or “Wrong window”.


Occasionally, some inconsiderate person will come in and “flood” the “channel” with spam and repeated advertising/vulgar messages. The admin of the channel will then kick the person out of the channel or black list him/her. LOL (Laughing out loud).

Then if you encounter lagging through your slow connection, other people would "ping" you to check how long you lag. Those were the days...

That was about 13 years ago. Since, then I’ve followed the transition of the trend. I have changed my chatting from mIRC to ICQ. Remember the green flower? Remember when someone messages you, ICQ will play a sound that goes “Oh oh!” I still keep my account but I don’t use it anymore. My net friends have migrated to the next latest software.

Next off, came Windows Messenger/ MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger. You could chat through you microphone and webcam. There were more added features too like Yahoo Launch Cast which could play unlimited music while you chat. Not long after that, other companies follow suite with Skype, G-talk and many more. Skype even allowed you to call to land line for free at the beginning!

I remember testing it out by calling my friends overseas through land line. Now they charge you for a reasonable fee for the same privileges. With time, technology changes in a blink of an eye. We, as the users try to keep up. Or so I thought I did…

After not chatting online for sometime, I realized I’m outdated. I tried this online game recently and the “terms” they used are different! In fact, the smiley face of :) has turn into ^_^.

No one uses the word “newbie” anymore. Everyone refers to the new “guy” as a “noob”. Argghhh The horror!! I am such a dinosaur.

I look back at those days when I first learn words like BTW, FYI and ROTFLOL. I wonder who creates all these terms. Some of them are very descriptive. Have you noticed the different effect of laughing when you type “lol”, “rotflol”, “hehe”, “haha”, “muahaha”, etc? Oh yeah, I found some interesting blogs on LOL too.

I find “lol” more of a polite laugh. Although, I still like the term “ROTFLOL” the best. (Rolling on the floor laughing out loud). I find it best described a person who is very tickled at a joke or comment (very graphic).
In the meantime, I salute and let the new generation continue swimming by with the flow of change in technology and internet. While I slowly trail behind (finally started to blog after years it was out and trying out those online games), I realized I’m ancient in the internet age. Help! :P