Throughout the history of the internet, language has changed drastically but especially so in recent years. A big reason for this is because of the desire to fix the issue of text being unable to carry tone clearly. There have been many solutions to this issue including tone markers including “/s” or “/sarcasm” to indicate sarcasm and “/j” or “/joking” to indicate a joking tone. Along with that a popular way to soften the tone of a message is to add “LOL” at the end of the message or to use an emoji.
LOL came to be when Wayne Pearson wanted a new way to respond to his friend’s joke in the 1980’s so he landed on “Laughing Out Loud” or LOL. Since then it has had many uses past its obvious meaning of “Laugh(ing) Out Loud” including being used to soften the tone of a message. Take the sentence “You forgot to include the attachment in your email” for example, normally this message would have a more serious tone to it, but by utilizing LOL at the end of it, it lowers the seriousness and makes it seem more light hearted.
Another method people have used to convey tone - that being a mocking or sarcastic tone - through messages is by alternating between upper and lower case letters. This method has become widespread mainly due to its ability to be understood naturally by most people. The reason it can be understood easily is because when we speak in this tone, oftentimes we alternate the pitch and/or volume of our speech and when people see this in text, they intuitively understand its meaning.
Not only have new forms of ‘punctuation’ been added due to the internet, but some of our punctuation marks have taken on a new meaning. Take the period for instance, when placed at the end of a message, it changes the tone of the message to be harsher, signifying “This conversation is over.” The period isn’t the only punctuation mark to have changed use. The exclamation mark has become more widely used in recent times due to the internet and now it is unlikely to be seen without multiple of them in a row.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen attempts to change punctuation in English. Throughout the years people have tried to solve the issue of text and tone through the use of punctuation marks. Some examples of this is the Percontation mark which takes the form of a backwards question mark (⸮) used to denote irony or sarcasm and the Interrobang (‽) used to express excitement in a questioning tone. Despite the usefulness and support for these punctuation marks, due to the cost of developing typesets for printing presses they were eventually phased out. However recently there has been an increase in the amount of people using Interrobangs both in the single symbol form and as a question mark and exclamation mark combined.