Are you still using ‘LOL’ to express your amusement? If you are, then the joke is actually on you because ‘LOL’ is a bit last season.

A US-wide study, entitled The Not-So-Universal Language of Laughter, has carried out research on the subject of e-laughter. According to the findings, the most common form of e-laughter is ‘haha’, used by 51 per cent of respondents. This is followed by the use of emoji and ‘hehe’. The number of respondents who use ‘LOL’ stands at just 1.9 per cent.

The study breaks down the findings according to age, gender and location. Younger users and women are more likely to use an emoji while men prefer to use ‘hehe’. Interestingly, hardly any respondents use ‘ROFL’ any more. And one respondent wrote a 600-letter long ‘hahaha…’. Must have been a pretty funny joke.

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