XD LOLZ: A HISTORY OF LAUGHTER IN TEXT

Giggling online is as vintage as the internet itself. Back before emoji and meme-ified faces, we had to get wild with our digital expressions. "XD" appeared in the late 90s as a way to communicate amusement. It was like the ASCII equivalent of laughing out loud. Then came "LOL" - an abbreviation of "Laughing Out Loud," it quickly rose to fame as