Diaryland
|
Newest Entry
|
|
Contact Me
Diaryland |
|
2006-08-16 - 4:12 p.m. Alphabet Soup We live in a hurried-up world. From microwavable Thanksgiving dinners to lightening quick Internet service, and revved up cars to drive-through liquor stores, we live our lives in high speed. No matter the task, we want to get it done with the least amount of effort. Effectiveness has given way to efficiency. Human communication is not unscathed: it, too, has fallen victim to our hypersonic world. Where once we were taught to make our communication—be it written or verbal—thorough, meaningful and effective, today we communicate in quick speak. The acronym has saturated our lives! Why bother with expressive dialogue or influential and practical writing when we can spit out a few initials and say it all in less time? What, it takes maybe a second to say FBI? Let’s not invest three seconds to say Federal Bureau of Investigation! Today’s communication short-hand grew out of early 20th century technology and can be blamed on our government—which, it seems, still has a growing arsenal of initials for any number of entities. With World War II came all kinds of new technology and programs, the names for most of which tied tongues. Something had to be done to make this simple. Government’s solution: alphabetic abbreviations! WAC, VD, PX, OSS, CIA, NATO and UNESCO may have been among the first in communications short-hand, but from there the acronym grew like Kudzu. In addition to governments, education likes to liberally sprinkle acronyms in the learning salad. We no longer need to teach coherent verbal dialogue or powerful written communications when we can fill heads with alphabet soup. That makes sense. Be efficient, not particularly effective. Teaching is conveying information and instruction—hopefully information and instruction that is meaningful. We started with our ABC’s and have moved on to ACT, EOG, PEP, IEP, NCLB and on and on. I have put into words what I mean so you understand, right? Let’s try this one: one of my favorites, but limited to rural, agricultural areas in the Midwest. Most educational institutions give the WISC-III (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children); in BFE (you figure it out) we give the FART, or Farm and Rural Test! When technology expands, so do acronyms. Internet users going into chat rooms, message boards and forum and instant messenger services have a dictionary of quick speak. There’s no need to type out a complete message when you can tap out two or three initials. A/S/L is a speedy way to find out the age, sex and location of someone you might be trying to hit on. Is there anyone today who doesn’t know what LOL means? What about LMFAO? Ah now, c’mon, surely you’ve laughed your fat ass off at least once on line! Do it enough and you’ll suffer from UBD (User Brain Damage)! Just to prove there’s an acronym for any sequence of letters, I went to an acronym finder online and typed in a piece from the ABC’s. Look what LMNOP really is: Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace. There are four letters which have been erroneously attributed to acronym hell. The f-word! Wrong if you think this is rendered from:
It may be true acronyms can add fun and interest to our language and can be memory devices, but I have a hard time knowing what the (Fornication Under Consent of the King) someone is saying to me when they communicate using only initials. Call me old fashioned, but I would rather understand than be hyper-efficient! TAF - That's All, Folks!
|
Lazy dog graphic used with permission from Fuzzy Faces and Dale Lewis
