A rant is due from a long time. Here it goes:
One time I had a dream. It was somewhat like this:
I woke up from deep sleep, got ready, and went out to buy something. As soon I reached a shop, I asked the shop owner to give me something. He asked me ‘What?’. I repeated what I wanted. He seemed to not understand me. I kept on telling him but he kept on shaking his head as if I was speaking another language.
I came back home and picked up my phone to call my friend. The friend picked up just after 1 ring. I said something. But he didn’t seem to get it and he said ‘What?’. I said something again. Again, he kept saying ‘Hello!?’. Irritated I cut the phone and I thought that I will text him instead. I messaged him. He replied back ‘Have you gone nuts? What are you typing? What does it mean?’.
I checked what I had sent him. I also realized what I was saying on phone. And what I said to the shopkeeper as well.
It was all in acronyms. I was speaking, writing, texting all in Acronyms. All in short forms with no regard to grammar, receiver’s state of mind, decency of humanity but GM, HRU, TC, TX, and so on. It was a nightmare. It indeed was a nightmare!
Acronyms. We all are surrounded by them. They have taken over us. They have been there for some time. Since people started to write, they also found ways to shorten what they wrote in the beginning. They have morphed a bit, changed a lot, evolved sometimes, and stayed the same. They have seen it all. They are coming to get us. They have stuck around long enough to irritate one and all. If they haven’t (oh sorry have not) irked you yet, they will.
What would one do with the time which one saved by not typing full words? FYI, GNU stands for GNU’s Not Unix (!). ANT stands for Another Neat Tool. PIN code could have been called just Code but no! OK has been On Kerosine or some time it was for All Correct or now just K. Can you get past a day when you are not hit by one or the other acronym someone created because they were too busy to write it wholly out? Moreover, who approves these short forms? Shouldn’t there be a law to approve them first so that they become universally acceptable first? Shortening words or transforming words happen with time, but when did PTO become ‘Personal Time Off’ from ‘Please Turn Over’? I say let’s take SMH, AFAIK, RT, ID, and so on, wrap them around, etc., and then throw it send it to Wuhan’s Abandoned Wet Market or bury it under some Internet Cable in some sea.
But you say, there’s a Glossary? Haha, no you should be sorry to have explanations given explicitely for previous blunders.
What would one do when the country’s Prime Minister himself is an acronym enthusiast?
PostScript: Just google “Acronyms Seriously Suck – Elon Musk” if you have some time saved by sending across acronyms instead of full sentences. Obviously, you don’t have any time saved. So take this instead.
Photo by Surendran MP on Unsplash