Using Acronyms Gives Brain More Room To Think About Other Stupid Shit
Researchers at the University of Colorado have been doing some intensive studies on the way humans have taken to using thousands of acronyms to replace actual words. Â âIt really seemed to take off once texting and Facebook became so popular,â says linguist savant and lead researcher Dr. Alan Barker. Â âItâs quite fascinating when you really think about it and then start to look at the facts. Â There are a litany of categories we could have pulled from, but we limited it to 2 categories for the sake of time and our sanity. Â We looked at casual acronyms as well as corporate acronyms.â Ellen Festerling took the lead on casual acronyms. Â She tells us more. Â âNo one would be surprised if I told you that there has been an increase in acronym use. Â It will surprise many when we release that casual acronym usage has increased 550% over the last 10 years. Â Some examples of what weâre talking about include LOL, ROTFL, OMG, WTF, TTYL, BFF, CUL8R, and the list goes on and on. Â Those that did not grow up in this generation need an extra acronym dictionary just to keep up with the explosion. Â Keyboard manufacturers are putting out some prototypes already where half of the keyboard will be only acronyms. Â Itâs a shift in the way we use language like weâve never seen in our lifetime. Â I used to have to think twice when someone told me âTGIF.â Â Today, that oldie but goodie does not even make the top 1000 acronyms used. Â Incredible.â Shooter Minshale, also on Barkerâs team, tells us more about corporate acronyms. Â âEllen captured a lot of the same trends we see in the corporate world that weâve seen in the casual world. Â Corporate acronyms have not increased as much over that same ten year period but they have still shot up a staggering 330%. Â The corporate world actually uses even more acronyms but just not as often. Â We believe it is simply a timing issue, where people are not working as much as they are spending time being casual. Â Some of those corporate examples we are talking about include PMP, ROI, FYI, WiFi, BPO, HIPPA, FAQ, and again the list is nearly endless. Â Employers report that this is a really good way to confuse potential job candidates and see if they are up to date on their acronym usage. Â One such company is toying with the idea of bringing in several candidates at a time and playing acronym Jeopardy with them so they can filter out candidates more quickly. Â Nearly every employer today agrees that you cannot make it in the corporate world if you cannot keep up with quickly changing corporate acronym jargon.â So what does all of this mean? Â Dr. Barker shares with us the teamâs conclusions. Â âFrom what we know about the brain, our findings show that we are using acronyms due to the massive influx of new information. Â Itâs the brainâs instinct to cut down on things that it does not need. Â If we have all of those words and all of those thoughts in our head, we will not move forward as a society. Â The brain can only handle so much. Â Putting common phrases into acronym form allows us to think more about other stupid stuff, like reality television or how to design your living room. Â Or it may allow us to do more drugs and drink more alcohol. Â When we kill off brain cells, this approach makes things much easier for us as humans. Â There are far too many factors to mention right now. Â I encourage those interested in learning more to read our published paper, OMG â What The Hell Are We Doing?, which will be available for purchase very soon.â