Tacking a quick “lol” onto the end of a WhatsApp message feels second nature to anyone who grew up typing on MSN or flip phones.
You’re not actually laughing out loud at the kitchen counter; it’s just a polite bit of digital punctuation to make sure a straightforward text doesn’t sound blunt or passive-aggressive. To younger people, though, spotting those three letters is an immediate giveaway that you’re well past your twenties.
While teenagers and early twenty-somethings cringe at it like a pair of bootcut jeans, the crowd that built the habit simply can’t let it go, using it more like a friendly safety cushion than a punchline. Understanding that generational divide explains why a harmless three-letter habit causes so much eye-rolling, and why ditching it feels almost impossible once it’s wired into your thumbs.
It’s gone from laughing out loud to something else entirely.
“Lol” started out as shorthand for “laughing out loud”. In the early days of chat rooms and text messaging, it meant exactly that. If someone sent you a joke, you’d reply “lol” to show it made you laugh. Over the years, though, its meaning has shifted. Most people who use it now aren’t laughing at all. Instead, it’s become a way of adding a friendly tone to a message, rather than a reaction to something funny.
Millennials and Gen Z might only be a generation apart, but they couldn’t be more different.
Millennials were born roughly between the early 1980s and the mid-1990s, which puts most of them in their thirties and early forties today. They were the first generation to grow up texting and chatting online. “Lol” was everywhere when they were teenagers, and many of them have used it ever since.
Gen Z, on the other hand, have never known life without smartphones and social media. They’ve developed their own habits, slang, and ways of showing emotion in messages. To them, “lol” belongs to an earlier era of the internet.
Why Gen Z say “lol” makes millennials look old
For Gen Z, “lol” feels dated, a bit like using an old catchphrase that’s gone out of fashion. Seeing it at the end of almost every message is an easy way to spot someone who grew up in the early days of texting. It’s become one of those little digital tells that hints at a person’s age. Gen Z also know that most millennials aren’t really laughing when they type it. That makes the habit seem even more out of step to them. The teasing is mostly lighthearted, but it’s become a running joke online.
How Gen Z show they’re laughing instead
Rather than “lol”, Gen Z tend to use emojis to react to something funny. Many have moved away from the classic laughing-with-tears face, which they see as old-fashioned. Instead, they might use a loudly crying face or a skull to suggest something was so funny it “killed” them.
They also often type in lowercase to keep messages relaxed and casual. Some feel that ending a message with a full stop can make it sound cold or annoyed. Voice notes, videos, and memes are also popular ways of keeping conversations light.
Millennials can’t stop with “lol” and probably never will.
For millennials, “lol” now works almost like punctuation. It can mean “I’m joking”, “I’m not cross” or “please don’t read this the wrong way”. It can also be a gentle way to end a message that might otherwise sound too blunt or serious. Many millennials say they resisted it at first, then found themselves using it without thinking. After two decades of texting, it has become second nature. Giving it up now would feel a bit like being told to stop saying “um” or “you know”.
“Lol” is actually more useful than it looks.
Written messages don’t come with facial expressions, gestures, or tone of voice, which makes them easy to misread. A short, plain reply can sound abrupt, even if it wasn’t meant that way. Little extras like “lol” help fill that gap.
People who study language say “lol” has become a tool for softening messages and keeping conversations friendly. In that sense, it isn’t so different from the emojis Gen Z prefer. Both are doing the same job: making sure the other person knows how you really feel.
So, who’s right?
Gen Z have a point that “lol” can instantly make a message feel like it was written by someone who grew up in the early 2000s. Millennials also have a point because the word still does a useful job in keeping messages warm and relaxed. Neither approach is wrong, just different.
As with all slang, today’s trends will probably look old-fashioned to the next generation too. One day, Gen Z’s favourite emojis may be teased in the same way. Until then, millennials are unlikely to give up their beloved “lol” any time soon.
