ACRONYMS are they killing the spoken and written word

[alldodge]

I retired from the DoD for and prior to texting, I knew of no one which used acronyms more then the DoD (CIWS, JSF, NSFS, NAVICP, etc). In the thread where a boat being towed in high winds was detached from the tow vehicle, I noticed JSATAIFAM. No one was able to find it in the urban dictionary or google. The poster said it means "just stop and think about it for a minute". So I see the world as folks don't talk face-to-face much. Then we add acronyms to the mix and there is less typing needed to say the same thing but less words. Looks like were headed to a place where one acronym will say what use to take a paragraph.

Guess that follows along the same line as some schools not teaching cursive writing. An acronym would be difficult using cursive, and young adults being unable to read and write cursive or print for that matter. I use things like BTW, IMO and a few others but I try to stop myself from getting to far into it. The spoken word is loosing the battle, and it appears the written is not to far behind.

 

[alldodge]

Re: ACRONYMS are they killing the spoken and written word

Shocked no, concerned yes

 

[alldodge]

Re: ACRONYMS are they killing the spoken and written word

Agree, there is no current way to stop it. Guess maybe we shouldn't try, could be something else will come out of it in future years which someone might think "this is great, a whole new way". Recon we can all sit back and see what happens next

 

[gm280]

Re: ACRONYMS are they killing the spoken and written word

Ha AllDodge, I too retired from the DOD (after 38 plus years) and if anybody can make up ACRONYMS it has to be the government hands down. BUT, those acronyms some times doesn't mean the same thing from one office to the next. I do remember going to a meeting, and again the government has the corner on them too - they actually have meetings to plan meetings :facepalm:: , and while in that meaning, few actual words were spoken but acronyms were flying around fast. And having worked in a few Software Engineering Offices already I was easily confused to the acronyms that were being used. The same acronyms were spoken but with totally different meanings. And then they spoke acronyms that were made up from other acronyms, now that is really bad! Texting just pushed the limit so more can be conveyed with out using real words... I'd hate to come back to earth in a hundred years. I probably couldn't begin to understand what folks would be saying...

 

[alldodge]

Re: ACRONYMS are they killing the spoken and written word

Hey gm280, a 38+ year guy here also. I know just what your talking about. When they BRAC'ed the last part of NOSL in 2010 they moved what was left to New Jersey. Told them sorry this old guy is not going. Did help them out for a year during transition, but trying to teach Army folk how the Navy does stuff was a chore. As like you said, the Army uses the same acronyms but they mean different things.

 

[rbh]

Re: ACRONYMS are they killing the spoken and written word

Maybe lots to text, but lazy fingers??

When people text do they pay by the syllable/letter?

 

[angus63]

Re: ACRONYMS are they killing the spoken and written word

Maybe lots to text, but lazy fingers??

When people text do they pay by the syllable/letter?

They used to pay for the data to text, so that is why a virtual shorthand was developed to reduce tranmitting costs. Now that texting is a flat rate, acronyms and shortcuts are not necessary but still linger and grow.

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: ACRONYMS are they killing the spoken and written word

I used to joke that I could talk for an hour, not say a word and all the listeners knew exactly what I was saying. Of course I was in a techie business at the time.

 

[gm280]

Re: ACRONYMS are they killing the spoken and written word

My wife has a smart phone, but since I retired, I haven't used a cell phone (nothing fancy either) but maybe one time in the last three years. I left an office phone and have no need to answer most any phone these days. I have better things to consume my time...like boating things!

 

[alldodge]

Re: ACRONYMS are they killing the spoken and written word

My texting is up to around 9 or 10 so far, maybe in another 10 years I'll get to double it. Don't want a smart phone, wife can have that, I have a flip.

 

[LippCJ7]

Re: ACRONYMS are they killing the spoken and written word

As a lot of you know I work at the local Sheriffs office and I am a Wildland firefighter..

OH MY GOD....

We actually have an acronym guidebook...

 

[alldodge]

Re: ACRONYMS are they killing the spoken and written word

As a lot of you know I work at the local Sheriffs office and I am a Wildland firefighter..

OH MY GOD....

We actually have an acronym guidebook...

Way cool

DoD has one also Joint Pub 1-02, use to be MIL-BUL-103 I think (old guy trying to remember) but never was kept up to date after around 1980 or so.
http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/joint_staff/jointStaff_jointOperations/913.pdf Big file 34mb

 

[aspeck]

Re: ACRONYMS are they killing the spoken and written word

Problem I see with the acronyms is that talking real, full length words, it is easy to be misinterpreted. Now add on the acronyms and it is that much easier to miss the meaning of what is being said. Communication sometimes seems to be a vanishing art.

 

[JB]

Re: ACRONYMS are they killing the spoken and written word

The is only one way to deal with them. Ignore them.

 

[nwcove]

Re: ACRONYMS are they killing the spoken and written word

back in october i took a SWANA course. ( solid waste association of north america). let me tell ya.....those guys have it down to a science , how to make acronyms sound like real words! a good, but unrelated example of this is....about a year ago one of the guys at work somehow got his clothing snagged while exiting a dump truck.....fell out, landed on his head, was off work for 3 months. his name is Josh.
shortly after that incident.....and not related to it at all, a JOSH committee was formed. ( joint occupation safety and health)

 

[alldodge]

Re: ACRONYMS are they killing the spoken and written word

We have one around here called the DAHS. When someone does something dumb. You tilt your head to one side and shake it back and forth slowly rolling your eyes. This is called a Dis-Acerning Head Shake

 

[roscoe]

Re: ACRONYMS are they killing the spoken and written word

OK, to add to the confusion, most of these "letter strings", cannot be pronounced as a word, so are not even acronyms.


Nasa is an acronym.
JSATAIFAM , HTML, and QCMS are not.

 

[canoemang]

Re: ACRONYMS are they killing the spoken and written word

Lmao

 

[alldodge]

Re: ACRONYMS are they killing the spoken and written word

OK, to add to the confusion, most of these "letter strings", cannot be pronounced as a word, so are not even acronyms.


Nasa is an acronym.
JSATAIFAM , HTML, and QCMS are not.

So true most all of the ones we call acronyms are actually initialisms, were the initials are strung together to mean something like NCIS and FBI

 

[southkogs]

Re: ACRONYMS are they killing the spoken and written word

… Kinda' laughed the other day. I had a person verbally say, "OMG." What made me chuckle is that saying "OMG" vs. saying "Oh my god" are exactly the same expenditure of energy - 3 syllables.

Language changes all the time, but not always for the better.