[FRIAM] Acronyms

[Barry MacKichan]

TMI

On 25 Jan 2021, at 18:43, Steve Smith wrote:

> 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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