Terra Nova about the shift in meaning of some abbreviations in internet speak:

In a world of text communication where real-life facial expressions and vocal intonations are impossible, abbreviations like “lol” sacrifice their real meaning in order to articulate our nuanced intentions. They, in and of themselves, become glib, cliche — while at the same time almost necessary for expression online. “Lol” has come to mean: I’m being playful; I’m just kidding; I’m flirty; I’m friendly. It tints everything around it with a certain joviality. To replace it’s original meaning, we have new favorites, like “rofl.” And who knows what that will come to mean, someday.

In fact, this does not only apply to LOL. I’ve seen several times that people try to tone down their messages by adding smilies.

One example on a bulletin board had a very obnoxious way of pretending to know notoriously everything better than everyone else. Over time, several people told him how annoying he was, with the effect that he started to slap a ;-) smiley behind every paragraph to tone it down, and defending himself by whining that people shouldn’t take him so seriously. But that couldn’t change the fact that his tone was still that of a wise-ass.

In my opinion, this may work once or twice, but it isn’t your free ticket to intimidate everyone with your smartalecking …

Tagsoup: Chat, Communication, Language, Linguistics