TATO

The Acronym takeover (TATO)

In the past two decades the use of acronyms has captured and lingually changed business communications forever.?This take over has created a communication culture that for most would need a translator to partake in. The very question to understand the usage of the acronym, might immediately categorize you as a “Newbie or “Unformed individual. “

If clear and concise communication is an art, and this communicator believes that it is. Then the Acronym take over might be comparable to the fine artist painter being taken over by the colored laser printer. Why is it that technical people cannot make a full sentence without using acronyms. Or at least without an arrogant display of discontent, if they are asked to define what the acronyms stand for.

Acronyms are now and will continue to be for the foreseeable future the standard of technical conversation. Some of them have become so common we hardly recognize their usage. For instance, you do not hear anyone say Internet Protocol anymore. Instead, an involuntary understanding has been entered into our muscle memory as an IP. Now as common as the word Apple has taken on a second identity. However, you cannot define something like GNSS (Global Network Satellite System) to someone who is not familiar to the world of geospatial intelligence and expect them to know what you are talking about without further informing them of the back story.

Now the interesting part of this new form of communication is that even if you (the listening party) have a spatially focused background, the other person (the communicator) will have a choice of acronymized vernacular that might cause the listener to muddle their way through understanding of the discussion. The Listener hopes, the subject might define the acronym as the discussion continues. If the listener does not find understanding as the discussion continues, the listener is at a loss. Potentially held mute by an adolescent like fear that they will be stigmatized as being ill informed. So, you the listener elect to stay uniformed or ask for a definition. Perhaps you wait and google it later, hoping you match it to the proper context. So, the real question might not be the intellect of the person uninformed of the acronyms meaning. The real question might be why does someone choose to use more acronym when in simple technical discussion?

If you cannot explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough. -Albert Einstein

What is your favorite acronym? Can you define and explain your favorite Acronym??