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You only live once, but a Facebook post is forever

One Facebook user kills the buzz over the Internet's favorite new slang, YOLO.

 

Kevin Collier

Internet Culture

Posted on Apr 6, 2012   Updated on Jun 2, 2021, 6:52 pm CDT

Every day, the Daily Dot finds something that people on Facebook are sharing and, in turn, shares it with you—with a little explanation. Here’s today’s share.

Kids these days sure like to use funny Internet words, but they still enjoy good old-fashioned schadenfreude.

First, a clarification: the word “yolo” is youthful Twitter slang for “you only live once.” It’s used both earnestly (“Staying up all night in some random guys garage #YOLO”) and sarcastically (“Didn’t safely remove my USB #YOLO”). As a hashtag, it’s been tweeted more than half a million times in the past 30 days.

Facebook users of all ages are passing around a new photo that shows young girls drinking and partying—hashtagged #yolo—followed by a very different picture: a girl with her hand over her mouth, devastated to learn she’s pregnant.

A young man named Mac Colcer has shared the photo Thursday, and it quickly leapt outside his circle of 1,000 or so friends—it’s since been liked almost 50,000 times.

“r u kidding me? this is a record for me haha,” Colcer wrote about the picture’s popularity.

Ironically, many users who commented on the photo did so purely in acronym-based Internet slang.

“lol,” Steve Gossett commented .

“Omg haha” Annie Tasse wrote.

“lmmfaooooooo,” Allie TenBroeck added.

Unrecorded

Photo via Facebook

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*First Published: Apr 6, 2012, 3:49 pm CDT