lol is in my eyes nothing more than a very short chuckle about something pathetic.
if i see or hear something pathetic, i lol at it. i even say it out loud sometimes...
I totally a agree and same here. For me it definitely doesn't have the literal meaning of 'laughing out loud', but rather 'it made me smile'. I very much doubt it still has the literal meaning of laughing out loud for most people, as it would be stupid to constantly say.
It's sort of similar to this smiley
or
. Indicating you're having a good time, sort of. Or if something was pathetically lame, respond to it.
I don't know if I use it often or not, but I do think I prefer smileys. But in chatboxes I definitely use lol too, as it's equally as stupid to post a dozen smileys in one line too. :p
