When I got my first job, one of the roles I had to perform was writing the minutes for the weekly staff meetings which took place between my department and the Architects. It was company policy, that the meeting Chairman had to read out a long piece put together by the Managers at the top, of all the things that needed to be discussed. It was all ridiculously regimented and tedious and not to mention full of technical jargon, that even the Architects themselves didn’t know what it meant, because it was basically the type of jargon that only the Managers knew, and the underdogs were just expected to know what it meant.
I don’t know if this is part of the reason why I am such an advocate against unnecessary jargon, that doesn’t help anyone, but I absolutely hate jargon. It is pointless, and verging on being a representation of laziness for people who can’t be bothered to write out the whole word. Amongst friendship groups and even on social media this is fine, especially when limited to 140 words on Twitter, but in business it is a huge no-no!
So yes, it bugs me, and it’s confusing for a lot of people especially when it is included in copy that is designed to be read by customers.
In the world of the Internet, the biggest form of jargon is most definitely the Acronym (when several words are abbreviated into letters). It started with the LOL and BRB, but then it moved on to KMU and I got confused, so I’m going to start a small dictionary that will include all of those annoying acronyms that so many of us don’t understand.
Here are a few to get us started. Many of these may seem obvious, especially to a lot of people because these are probably the most well-known across the Internet, but I’m including them because not everyone knows them. Interestingly, some of the Acronyms actually stem back further than the internet:
LOL – Laugh Out Loud
LMAO – Laughing My Ass Off
LMFAO – Laughing My F***ing Ass Off
ROTFL – Rolling On The Floor Laughing
G2G – Got To Go
ETA – Expected Time of Arrival
BRB – Be Right Back
ONO – Or Nearest Offer
KMU – Keep Me Updated
IDK – I Don’t Know
WTF – What The F***
I’ll be adding to this list in the future, so if there are any Acronyms that you think should be included, let me know.
Also, what is your stance on jargon?
Necessary – under the right circumstances – or just really annoying?