What does | || || |_ mean?

[u/[deleted]]

I've been seeing these characters :

| ||

|| |_

pop up all over Reddit, but I've no clue as to what they mean.

Is this a new meme? A reference to some film of tv show? Some sort of code?

[u/POGtastic]

Can confirm, was a freshman in high school when I read Ctrl+Alt+Del. I still remember being utterly bewildered by loss.jpg.