[FRIAM] Acronyms

[Steve Smith]

Nick -

I think it *can* be the thing you call out, but I encounter it in so
many contexts where that explanation doesn't really fit.   Sometimes I
think it is entirely unconscious shortcutting.   On this list, for
example, I use LANL (Los Alamos National Laboratory) because I believe
that *all* Santa Fe/NM folks know what it is an acronym for and *many*
non SFe (Santa Fe) NM (New Mexico) folks know it *by now*.   Similarly I
find SFI an acceptable contraction in this context.

On the technical side, the shortcut/contraction/acronym is often the
primary/preferred reference.   Even if you might not *know* that DNA is
/deoxyribonucleic acid/ or ATP is /adenosine triphosphate/... or that
the YMCA is the /young men's christian association/, for example, you
know the signified by that signifier, and in fact you *won't* know what
those contractions are *for* unless you are in fact using them in some
insider/technical sense.

I know people who work within a large  but somewhat insular community
whose acronyms are myriad and they are truly NOT trying to be
exclusionary.   I have a number of friends who are either social workers
or have studied in the field or have friends/families with mental
illness so I hear the acronym DSM and I can tell it is being used in a
very "insider" way.   I know little of the details, but I've gathered
that "DSM II" somehow connotes both "modern" and "not-really-modern"
psychiatric models, but I think even if I do the GoogleFu to learn the
first level of details, I would not be much less puzzled by knowing, for
example:


          DSM-I and DSM-II

    In 1952, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) published the
    DSM-I, an adaptation of a classification system developed by the
    armed forces during WW2. It was designed for use by doctors and
    other treatment providers.

    The DSM-I was the first of its kind, but experts agreed that it
    still needed work. The DSM-II, released in 1968, attempted to
    incorporate the psychiatric knowledge of the day. It was heavily
    influenced by psychoanalytic concepts that were prominent at that time.

I think that both Glen and maybe Frank have tossed DSM or even DSM II
into the conversation here without any more explication than I get at
cocktail parties and it lands just as dead for me, but not offensive
here as there (until I get my GoogleGoggles flashing
Wikipedia/Wiktionary in my peripheral vision with automatic
explication).  It even seems like a good feature for
Alexa/Siri/HeyGoogle to listen continuously and recognize acronyms and
offer ordered-by-likelihood-from-context explications in your ear (or in
the room if you want to shame the acronymster acrimoniously).

I understand that many are "lazy typists" who find it patently painful
(emotionally if not physically) to type anything out.   And *too many
people* (IMO ... in my opinion) do too much of their correspondence on a
TS (tiny screen) which requires them to hunt-peck with one finger (maybe
two thumbs) without touch feedback and without the benefit of QWERTY
knowledge built into their Neural Net neurons.

I'm assuming Frank's OP (original post) was in response to both some
specific TLA (three letter acronym) used recently or the accrued
irritation of having to look up jargon ( especially TLAs and MLAs (multi
letter acronyms)) just to figure out a conversation he is *otherwise*
informed enough on to follow.   Or both.  Or maybe he's just taking out
his frustration with his daughter here where it's "safe" <grin>.

BTW (by the way) and FWIW (for what it's worth) I think I'd be game for
one of Glen's experiments, even if the constraints offered somehow
cramped *my* style (e.g. 20 line limit on posts, no markup-like
formatting like *bold* or EMPHASIS or _underscore_ HTML (even formatting
like *bold* or /italics/).   or even his extremal suggestion of
requiring "peer review" by 3 others before submitting (I'd probably
become rather mute over that one) WTFOMFGROFLMAOGMWAS!

- Steve

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