Doyce writes that he’s noticed a distinct drop in uses of emoticons in online writing. He suggests that, just as emoticons originally came up as a means to deal with new, quick, widespread use of electronic communication (chat, email) that encouraged quick, off the cuff, informal, and misinterpretation-prone text, our growing experience with the medium has reduced the need.
Are people less sarcastic/ironic/satirical today? Seems unlikely. Sure, most of us use a smiley here and there, but – at least for me – it’s often to take the sting out of a particular harsh statement; less “this is a joke” than “remember we’re all friends here.” My opinion is that we (the global internet-using culture) have so immersed ourselves in text-based communication since those early digital days that we’ve collectively relearned how to clearly communicate nuance in the medium, as well as how to detect it.
We’ve become better readers. And writers.
I think there’s something to that. Certainly in more formal online writing (e.g., my blog), I definitely use them less (hardly at all — I actually notice it when I start to).
On the other hand, I do still use them in some business and personal email, esp. emails that emulate instant messaging (“k thx”). I use them in IMing, too, though, and others still seem to do so there as well. But I don’t use them on Twitter (they take up precious characters).
Doyce’s hypothesis sounds plausible, but I’m not sure my own data points make it that definite? Thoughts?
Now if we could just get people to stop typing “LOL” as though it’s an actual word.
I’ve always preferred a wry, “Heh.”
I think you’re dead-on, Dave: the only place I really use smilies anymore is in Chat.
It’s odd that it’s not on Twitter, though. You’d think that with only 140 character, we’d need more help indicating our mood, not less.
… unless it’s because, with only 140 characters, we choose our words so carefully that we don’t need the help. Hmm.
I think that is precisely it. Plus, people expect lower bandwidth on Twitter, so they don’t leap to conclusions. Plus … unless you’re using Directs for chat, most Twitter stuff I see is not dialog per se, but expressions of personal feelings and/or interesting stuff, so less likely to provoke “I better explain that more so someone doesn’t get torqued” worries.
LOL bugs me because people no longer seem to use it to mean “laughing out loud.” It now seems to mean “take what I just said as a joke,” and is generally necessary because the joke in question was very weak Unfortunately, I still automatically translate it literally, and am then irritated because “only a moron would laugh out loud at THAT.”
Yeah, I know. I need to lighten up. 😛
Actually, your assessment of the “meaning drift” of LOL is spot-on.
I occasionally use the phrase, but use it quite literally.