I say LOL in real life. I can't even help it, it's part of my subconscious vocabulary. If something is funny but I can't be bother faking a laugh I just say "Oh, LOL." Then someone will be like "did you just say LOL?" and I'll say "uhh, no?" God I need to get out more.
Guilty on the rl use of 'lol'. I have on very rare occasions been known to say 'rofl' as well... On the texting thing: it's not just the kids. Yes kids grow up with this stuff and are therefore more comfortable with it generally, but I don't know anybody in my age-bracket, or indeed my Mum's age-bracket who don't use mobile phones, and most of those people will use their phones to text. My mum and my best friend are both absolute sods for disappearing into their phones halfway through a meal/tv show/walk in the woods etc. For some reason neither of them are capable of just noting the fact that they have a message and dealing with it after the conversation is finished... If anything, I think us oldsters are probably worse than the youngsters on this, in some ways. phones that travel with you, instant access to social media and collecting the intimate details of strangers via the various friendlists, has changed how we interact with our communications. On the one hand youngsters growing up now have an expectation of instantaneous contact, not tied to place or time. On the other hand, that expectation of instantaneous contact means said contact doesn't carry the same level of urgency/immediacy as it did when one was, for instance, stood in a call box, or when the phone unexpectedly rang in the evening. Basically, my generation and older were trained to respond to communication attempts because they existed solely in the moment. Hence Mum just can't not respond when her phone goes off, or when she hears the message bleep.
