Facebook has conducted a research paper on the communication behaviour of its users and language used to express laughter. The data was collected during the last week of May and analyzed any prominent string of characters matching laughter. Interestingly, “haha” was the most popular response with 51.4%, followed by an Emoji which users said 33.7% during the testing period. The term, “lol” has almost become obsolete and only attributes for 1.9% of discussions. This is quite surprising because “lol” was once the automatic response to convey laughter and I thought it was still used by a large demographic.
It seems “lol” is predominately used by people in their late 20s who grew up with this terminology. The age chart includes figures for the median (dashed line), 25th and 75th percentiles. In direct contrast, Emojis are extremely popular with the under 25s and a new means to communicate online. Although, the research doesn’t specifically state how e-language type doesn’t always relate to comedy. Often, these terms are used as a verbal filler to continue a conversation or put the other participant at ease. From a linguistic standpoint, this is why so many people use wordings like “haha” after mundane sentences to denote a sense of familiarity. 
As someone who grew up with virtually everyone using “lol”, this proves how language dramatically changes over time. While it makes me feel rather old, I will stick to my style of communication, as habits are very difficult to change.
Do you use any of these terms online?
