There's no shortage of ways to laugh online, and for the internet literate, each option can convey something slightly different. You certainly don't want to be caught with a "hehehe" when "lolol" would be more appropriate. In April, The New Yorker explored this cultural phenomenon anecdotally, which prompted Facebook to take a harder look at the statistics behind how we express our amusement online.
Facebook analyzed its users' posts (private messages were not included in this study) and determined that only 1.9 percent of internet gigglers most commonly used "lol." Just over half of people preferred the classic "haha," a third turn to emoji, and the remaining 13 percent is rounded out by "hehe" lovers.
The results were also broken down farther. Seattleites lean on "haha" while Chicagoans are more into emoji. Young people and women also prefer emoji.
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The study makes no mention of old AIM standbys like "lmfao" and "rofl," so we can only assume they went the way of the angsty lyric-filled away message.
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