The unofficial language of the 21st century is a series of abbreviations made to efficiently text message someone, or to fit a certain sentiment into 140 characters.
But another language with the language is "e-laughter," how people reward others for a funny picture shared on Instagram or a wisecrack tweet. These too are abbreviated in many different ways, and Facebook set out to find out which was most often used.
In a newly released survey, the social media giant scanned their massive piles of user data to find how people expressed laughter online. "Haha" (or similar typings with additional "H's" and A's") appeared 51.4 percent of the time, with an emoji depicting a smiling or laughing face coming in second at 33.7 percent. "Hehe" was third most used at 13.1 percent and "lol" (laughing out loud) finished fourth with a measly 1.9 percent.
The median age of people who use "haha" is in the mid-20s and is slightly older than the emoji users, but younger than the "hehe" and "lol" users. "Lol" had the oldest median age, which could have some sort of connection to its low usage rate.
Men tend to use "haha" and "hehe" more than women, though women still use the former response more than the other three. Still, women are far more likely to express laughter with an emjoi than men are and only slightly more inclined to mix in an "lol" once in a while.
Facebook also measured use by major city and found that Seattle, Wash. and San Francisco, Calif. natives use "haha" more than any city uses their respective favorite e-laughter. But Chicago, Ill. comes in right after with their use of emojis.
