Facebook Says Nobody Uses LOL Anymore

Facebook carried out a study into how people show that they find something funny online and finds that the simple “haha” is king.

LOL, the acronym for “laugh out loud” and once the universal sign of online amusement, is fading fast.

A Facebook study into “e-laughing” says it has been replaced by “haha” and emoji. Just 1.9% of posts feature LOL, the site says, compared with 51.4% for “haha”.

Emoji takes second place with 33% while “hehe” follows with 13%.

The study also found a gender split in how people express their amusement on the social network, with men typically using “haha” or “hehe”, while women use emoji more.
The study was carried out after a feature was published in The New Yorker magazine in April looking at the different ways that people show they’re amused using text.

Facebook decided to analyse posts from the US in the last week of May, and has now published its findings.

As well as gender differences, how you laugh online is also influenced by your age and location.
LOL is used by older Facebook users, with an average age of 28 – while those in their early 20s were more likely to choose an emoji to show their laughter.

West coast states typically tend towards using “haha” and “hehe”, while southern states still use LOL.

Facebook analysed public posts, and did not look at expressions of laughter in private messages sent on its Messenger platform – SkyNews