Why are some people preoccupied with acronyms, or catch phrases ? I’m going to theorise that those who include them in their general vocabulary are perhaps easily suggestedthe perfect fodder of stage hypnotists the world over.
Being brutally honest, people who follow others really annoy me. You have a mind of your ownwhy not exercise it?While listening to a podcast earlier, the term “QA” came upone of the panel on the podcast innocently asked “what do you mean by QA?”, and was instantly ridiculed, and labeled a “giant FAIL” by one of their peers. It was perhaps no coincidence that the person who spoke out was english, and the rest of the panel were american (if you are wondering, in this instance, QA meant “Quality Assurance”not “Questions and Answers”).
America (apologies for generalising here) does seem to have a love affair with acronyms, codes, figures of speech, and fashionable verbiage. Perhaps it originates from the 1950s G-Men, the A-Bomb, the FBI, CIA, NSA, and other such idiocy.
As an aside, I read the other evening that Syndrome in The Incredibles was voiced by Jason Leehe of lead singer in Almost Famous, and Alvin and the Chipmonks fame. Syndrome is the stereotypical american kid obsessed with following an aspired to peer groupand he was invented by US writers and artists, so I’m guessing it takes one to know one.
Of course the internet has not helpedthe proliferation of “LOL”, “ROFL” and “PML” is complete. Back in the days of usenet, “FWIW”, and “AFAIK” were common. In these modern days of twitter and it’s ridiculous 140 character limit, a whole new language is evolving. Vowels are regularly dropped to fit more words inthose with shorthand skills must be smiling.
Who would have thought that shorthand skilled secretaries would be the most skilled authors on Twitter ?