A couple of days ago while at work my boss made a funny remark on an E-mail from a vendor because of an obvious faux pas from the vendor’s part. Later that day, I got two replies to that E-mail, one saying “LOL” and the other said “LMAO”, I was a bit amused albeit the unprofessionalism of the whole situation, but I shrugged it off and continued working.

After lunch, a colleague of mine who sits straight in front of me says to me “What are these guys saying?” I looked up and shook my head pleading him to further explain. He continued, “What does L-O-L and L blah blah blah mean?” I looked at him incredulous not believing my ears, I thought he was joking. But his facial expressions were sincere, he obviously did feel that he had every right to ask such a question, and that these monkey’s were bashing their heads on the keyboard and sending out E-mails!

I heeded carefully, I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, that he just doesn’t know what “LMAO” is (which is somewhat tolerable) . So I decided just to answer his second part of the question regarding “LMAO”. However, he seemed insistent, “What about L-O-L?” he shot back. At this point I couldn’t take it anymore and just laughed in his face, with all the confusion in his face. “Dude, haven’t you EVER chatted online?” he admitted that he does it sometimes….

Alas! I appeal to my readers (do they exist?), is it so hard to imagine a college graduate, 20 something old male, working in middle management of a marketing department of a multi-billion retail company, communicating daily via 10’s if not 100’s of English E-mails, in the year 2007, who doesn’t know the meaning of “LOL”???(boy what a complicated sentence, hope I got it right).

Or is it just me who is an Internet freak (and admittingly an addict) who finds this mind boggling? I think I found a 21st century caveman!

LOL!