QUESTION: Are Acronyms Becoming Just Too Ubiquitous for the Everyman in Our Society, Nowadays?

[GammaGlobulin]

Dear Friends,

 

Have you had just about all you can take of being inundated with one acronym after the next, almost everywhere you look?

 

I just read an ad served up to me, moments ago, on a Thai business site.  The ad talked about ESG. How was I supposed to know that ESG means “Environmental, Social and Governance”?

 

I only know about monosodium glutamate (MSG). 

 

And then, some ads tell me to worry about SIDS.  But I am too old to be interested in Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

 

And, what is the NHS?  If I had SIDS, then I should contact the NHS, maybe? 

 

Being an everyday scientist, I am used to dealing with plenty of acronyms.  However, at the beginning of any article, we usually expect to be told what acronyms denote.

 

There are just so many obscure and needless acronyms floating around this year.  And, there will be even more in 2023.  How does one learn the meanings of enough of them to make sense of what one is reading?

 

Also, is this increasing bombardment of acronyms just another symptom of our texting world on social media?

 

What are some of the most useless acronyms that you have come across? The most useless are the ones which you will use only one time in your life and then need to forget.  Only, it seems, the ones you want to forget are the ones most easily remembered, for years.

 

Somebody said that there were 1,112,345 unique acronyms bobbing around between the years 1950 and 2019.  And so, does anyone know how many there will be in 2023?

 

What does the acronym (HMMMMM) mean, anyway?  It means “Holistic, Manipulative, Multi-modal and Mimetic, Musical and Mimetic”.

 

The only acronym of interest, at least to many of us, is USD.

 

The average college/university grad probably knows more acronyms than they know useful words.  This is probably why they no longer read books.  They just read texts composed mostly of acronyms.

 

Years ago, there seemed to be better acronyms, such as: (SNAFU).

 

When I die, in the year 2051, on my headstone, I plan to have just one short acronym, nothing more.

 

I have been asking my friends for suggestions.

They say it is too early to decide.

I say that it is very too early for anything.

 

What about you?

 

On your headstone, wouldn’t you prefer an acronym, as a sign of the times in which you lived?

 

What might that be?

 

Regards,

GammaGlobulin

[Gottfrid]

Are Acronyms Becoming Just Too Ubiquitous for the Everyman in Our Society, Nowadays?

Sure, just like common sense.

[ozimoron]

Yes, I hate them.

[KannikaP]

7 minutes ago, ozimoron said:

Yes, I hate them.

Especially TLAs

[ThailandRyan]

Deleted

Edited December 11, 2022 by ThailandRyan

[HappyExpat57]

It's just the new slang, driven by laziness and ignorance.

[ThailandRyan]

26 minutes ago, HappyExpat57 said:

It's just the new slang, driven by laziness and ignorance.

So IJTNS, DBLAI...

[ThailandRyan]

42 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

Especially TLAs

How about ROI's or TOA......

[HappyExpat57]

5 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

So IJTNS, DBLAI...

Well in that case, FGLA 2NFPS.

[toofarnorth]

No acronyms .On my headstone .  ' I told you I was feeling poorly '.

[KannikaP]

52 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

How about ROI's or TOA......

Come on Ryan, tell me please. = CORTMP. 555

[herfiehandbag]

DTIA

[herfiehandbag]

Don't talk in abbreviations!

 

"Service writing" ( The British military way of writing things, which I was taught and practised for many years and was designed to produce clear concise and accurate communication)  required any abbreviation or acronyms to be explained when first introduced into any document, thus - Rules of Engagement (ROE). 

 

A good practice to follow.

[Lacessit]

I quite like some acronyms, such as BOHICA.

I understand they were initiated by the American military, to abbreviate titles such as SACEUR ( Supreme Allied Commander Europe ) and CINCSUBPAC.

[GammaGlobulin]

5 minutes ago, herfiehandbag said:

Don't talk in abbreviations!

 

"Service writing" ( The British military way of writing things, which I was taught and practised for many years and was designed to produce clear concise and accurate communication)  required any abbreviation or acronyms to be explained when first introduced into any document, thus - Rules of Engagement (ROE). 

 

A good practice to follow.

You are completely correct, and this is also an imperative for all academic writing. 

 

Unfortunately, too many, today, choose to publish their articles on Twitter, a medium where brevity is more important than clarity and logic. 

 

The purpose/result of Twitter Tweets is to confuse the reader. This is why Twitter has been so popular with politicians. 

[StreetCowboy]

Anacronyms are like LSD

[herfiehandbag]

On 12/11/2022 at 12:10 PM, GammaGlobulin said:

You are completely correct, and this is also an imperative for all academic writing. 

 

Unfortunately, too many, today, choose to publish their articles on Twitter, a medium where brevity is more important than clarity and logic. 

 

The purpose/result of Twitter Tweets is to confuse the reader. This is why Twitter has been so popular with politicians. 

 

10 hours ago, StreetCowboy said:

Anacronyms are like LSD

And Twitter is a particularly bad trip!

[zzaa09]

S-T-F-U

They do have their advantages though. 

????

Edited December 15, 2022 by zzaa09

[GammaGlobulin]

On 12/14/2022 at 9:37 PM, StreetCowboy said:

Anacronyms are like LSD

In addition to the constant use of uptalk, the overuse of "like" is also a plague upon us, like. I was expecting you to say acronym, like. But you said anacronym, like. Like, LSD is not an anacronym, like. Is it? Lysergic acid diethylamide is a compound very well known, and not so obscure. It's not only commonly known, but, also, folklore. Therefore, like, I would say acronym in this case.   

 

Anyway, please just give me a like, like.

 

Edited December 16, 2022 by GammaGlobulin

[StreetCowboy]

2 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

In addition to the constant use of uptalk, the overuse of "like" is also a plague upon us, like. I was expecting you to say acronym, like. But you said anacronym, like. Like, LSD is not an anacronym, like. Is it? Lysergic acid diethylamide is a compound very well known, and not so obscure. It's not only commonly known, but, also, folklore. Therefore, like, I would say acronym in this case.   

 

Anyway, please just give me a like, like.

 

Maybe lsd should not have been capitalised - that's really before my time. 

[StreetCowboy]

Just now, StreetCowboy said:

Maybe lsd should not have been capitalised - that's really before my time. 

There's, like, no harm in giving a "like", bytheway, like, eh?

[Photoguy21]

They are for people who are unable to spell

[BangkokReady]

On 12/11/2022 at 7:40 AM, GammaGlobulin said:

The ad talked about ESG. How was I supposed to know that ESG means “Environmental, Social and Governance”?

 

I only know about monosodium glutamate (MSG). 

 

And, what is the NHS?

 

The only acronym of interest, at least to many of us, is USD.

The above are not acronyms.  They are initialisms.

 

An acronym is an abbreviation where the first letters of a group of words are used to make another word.

 

If you don't say the abbreviation as a word, and instead pronounce each letter, they are not acronyms.

 

On 12/11/2022 at 7:40 AM, GammaGlobulin said:

And then, some ads tell me to worry about SIDS.

 

Years ago, there seemed to be better acronyms, such as: (SNAFU).

These are acronyms.

[GammaGlobulin]

14 minutes ago, BangkokReady said:

The above are not acronyms.  They are initialisms.

 

An acronym is an abbreviation where the first letters of a group of words are used to make another word.

 

If you don't say the abbreviation as a word, and instead pronounce each letter, they are not acronyms.

 

These are acronyms.

Abbreviation vs. Acronym vs. Initialism:

 

Thank you.