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Nick Thompson [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/ From: Friam <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Steve Smith Sent: Monday, January 25, 2021 5:44 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Acronyms 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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