Linguist John McWhorter stated, "Lol is being used in a particular way. It's a marker of empathy. It's a marker of accommodation. We linguists call things like that pragmatic particles…" Pragmatic particles are the words and phrases utilized to alleviate the awkward areas in casual conversation, such as "oh" in "Oh, I don’t know" and "uh" when someone is thinking of something to say. McWhorter stated that "lol" is utilized less as a reaction to something that is hilarious, but rather as a way to lighten the conversation.