If you must write “lol”, or “lmao”, or the robust and heady “roflmao”, make sure that it is in response to what someone else said (don’t “lol” at your own jokes), and that it fits the situation. Very rarely does someone roll on the floor, laughing their ass off, so make sure that your use of “roflmao” reflects this.

Further, do not weave these abbreviations into a sentence unless it makes sense. The best way to check if you’ve used an abbreviation properly is to read the abbreviation as if you had typed it out in full. “Laughing out loud hahah look at that idiot” only makes you look like the idiot.

alternate title: ok, you might not think this is funny, so I’ll write something else later

Before I get into the specifics of this one, let me explain a few things.

Actually, Dorothy Gambrell can explain them better. Go here, read this, and come back. I’ll wait.

Now you probably understand the problem with self-defining a group of people based on something this arbitrary. It creates a climate of “you vs. us”, or “us vs. them”. But this is only part of the problem of self-defining. There are more problems associated with definitions which are based on economic status and the like. But this isn’t about that. I’ll probably never address that subject, because I don’t feel like it’s my place or like I’d be able to handle the subject properly.

Which now brings me to the subject of the grups. My nerd brethren, do you remember the episode of Star Trek where Kirk and the crew land on the planet where anyone who reaches adulthood becomes sick and dies? The planet is populated by children because of this, and they have created a unique social structure, and language. They call adults “grups”, a play on the term “grown-up”.

Now, people believe that they have uncovered a social pattern in the 30 somethings and late 20 somethings who have a certain type of style and listen to a certain type of music. The discovery of this has lead people to create a term for this disparate group of people. They’ve called themselves “grups”. The term is closely related to “yuppie”, a pejorative term for young adults from Generation X (I say pejorative, because most people do not self-identify as a “yuppie”). How is this different than “indie kid” or “hipster” or any other label? Labels never define who or what someone is, but they give you a shallow idea of what they could be like. This can only lead to problems in the future, my friends. Down with the “grup” label, and up with individualism and being awesome by your own rights.

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I feel like this is extremely incoherent, but time necessitates this, unfortunately. My brother Kwaku, and Liam (he comments here a lot) are in Ottawa, and we’re going out for a bit. Read this article for more info on grups.