RECENTLY, I have been asking myself if I have been sleeping like Rip Van Winkle or have been staying awake too long that my mind has shrunk because I could not understand the conversations around me. The language is familiar but the words are not because these are not really words but acronyms. One conversation went like: The EOPOs would tell us what STTAs we look into ASAP of review the gaps in the QSRs and the AWPs... and on and on.

An acronym is “a word or name formed as an abbreviation from the initial components of a phrase or a word, usually individual letters and sometimes syllables.”

Schools are usually referred to in acronyms -- UP, AdDU, AdMU, UM, PUP, etc. The word SCUBA is actually an acronym to mean Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus and has revolved to being that -- a word.

Social media has introduced new words into our language and even new forms like the meme and emojis. An emoji is “a small digital image or icon used to express an idea or emotion.” A meme is “a humorous image, video, piece of text, etc., that is copied (often with slight variations) and spread rapidly by internet users.” Memes and emojis spice up chats or texts or written conversations unlike acronyms that confused the uninitiated (and in this case, me).

Communication, in any form, is supposed to foster understanding and the overwhelming use of acronyms in a single conversation creates confusion. But jargon or special words or expressions are common among a particular profession or group. I grew up hearing medical terms like: stat, CA, ER, QID, per orem, etc. Mama said that the acronyms and abbreviations made everything quick around the hospital. So when the nurse enters the room and announces that s/he will take the patient’s “BS” she actually meant VS or vital signs. But a nurse entering the room to take my VS at 4 a.m. actually gets a BS but then again, it’s a hospital and you are a patient.

To properly engage in the conversation, one asks what the acronyms mean. I think I have asked too often about what the acronyms meant that I have interrupted several trains of thought in a single conversation enough to change its momentum. At times it feels like embarrassing or that you are in a conference table with aliens cosplaying normal humans. Oh well.