LOL ... no, you didn't.

I use lol online, I'm no lolsnob - I completely support the use of lol. It does mean we have to have a new abbreviation for 'laugh out loud' which is alwp, or 'actual laughter was produced'. But despite this minor inconvenience I am a full backer of lol.

... until it leaves the online world. There are few trivial things that make my brain jump angrily from the cranium more than someone saying "lol" as part of a regular conversation. I'm all for development of language and internet sayings becoming part of the spoken language but not lol.

"And Emma was telling us, lol, she was explaining..."

The story that followed that was highly amusing. But I couldn't hold back throwing myself into a rant about how as it means LAUGH OUT LOUD my friend could have just, you know, laughed... out loud. I do have just about perfect hearing, and in any case, I could have seen that she had laughed from the way her mouth moved, even the way the lines around her eyes creased as she said 'lol'. We have known each other for 15 years.

It doesn't even make sense as an abbreviation in spoken word. The point of things like alwp, lol, lmfaoroflysst and :L is that they communicate online, in a setting where it is difficult to express this without quick written aids, that you are amused and have laughed. Face to face, or on the phone even, you can see/hear that the person has laughed and this lol-age is therefore unnecessary. They have laughed out loud.

*steps off soapbox*