EWTA

Enough with the Acronyms!

I am so sick of Acronyms. I hear/see them all the time now. It's hard to read an article or have a conversation without acronyms taking up 1/4 of the words. For example here is a line from an article I just finished reading "a PNR is created in the database of a CRS in the USA". Does anyone know what that means? I am sure most of you got USA. Even in the context of the article there was some confusion as to what the acronyms actually stood for. Thankfully by the end of it they had actually used the full words and you were able to put it all together.

I am trying to understand why people feel the need to use them? Does it make you feel more important to talk in code? Do you actually think acronyms save time somehow? Generally speaking they don't. For example here are few acronyms that annoy me and I'll explain why.

FYI - can be shortened to For Your Info and only uses one more syllable. Is that 1/1000 of a second that it takes to "fo" really going to save you any real time? I guess if you say FYI enough times it could add up a full second of your day.

TTFN - Ta Ta For Now! Same amount of syllables, just say the words damn it. Or even better just say bye and actually save some time on this one for real.

LOL - Easily the most overused acronym in existence. I blame MSN...oh there is another one! Is everyone really laughing this much? I don't think so.

LMAO - ok not as popular as LOL, but just as annoying, in most cases the person using this one isn't even laughing at all...they may be smiling and we have a nice little symbol for that :-)

ROFL - I don't think I have ever seen anyone actually rolling on the floor laughing...passed out on the floor drunk POOFD would be one I could believe in.

ASAP - if you actually use this as a word ASAP when talking to people you will sound like a dork and they will secretly LOL behind your back. Don't do it.

OAC - I think most of the people going for the no money down, no interest plan don't even think about what that means. Do we really need OAC after every advertised deal. I think people understand that if they have no credit they don't get the deal.

Last but not least, any of those many acronyms that get stuck after your name after you finally finish University. No one cares...honestly...I know it took you 14 years to finally decide what letters you would get and you partied and worked hard to get them, but they only matter to you, your mom and dad and maybe the gold digger that you met at the club last night.

To top it off, many of the acronyms are now getting recycled so we can't even be sure what they mean anymore. Take for example the common PEI acronym CFA. Here on the Island, if you were born here it means Come From Away, a term for people not born on PEI. However if you don't know the local lingo it could mean: Candian Field Artillery, Cascade-Failure Analysis, Canadian Federation of Agriculture, Canadian Forestry Association, Centre for the Arts....and about 23 other things in Canada alone.

Technically most of the examples I gave are actually examples of initialism but we have come to refer to them as acronyms so that is what I will call them. Regardless of what we call them Acronyms are so overused at this point they no longer serve the purpose they were intended for, they certainly have no place in the spoken language. I will admit there are times in writing where they may be acceptable and may even be time savers, but are they worth it?

TTYL! (annoying isn't it?)