No one says LOL anymore, says Facebook study

Users of social media are no longer seeing the funny side of LOL. A Facebook study of “e-laughing” says it has been replaced by “haha” and emoji. Just 1.9 percent of posts feature LOL, the site says, compared with 51.4 percent for “haha.” Emoji take second place, with 33 percent, while “hehe” follows with 13 percent. The study also showed 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 haha-ers are also slightly more open than the hehe-ers to using odd numbers of letters, and we do see the occasional hahaas and hhhhaaahhhaas.

Facebook researchers

To learn how we laugh, Facebook researchers analyzed posts and comments written in English during the last week May. They did not analyze direct messages, so we don’t know people laugh or use emoji in private, according to the blog post. Still, 15 percent of people who commented or posted during that week laughed in some way. How we laugh also depends on gender and where we live.

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