The Three Letter Acronym has become the modern equivalent of the masonic handshake. Whether we work for a MNC or a SME our DTD 121s are littered with these melanomas of obscurity and exclusivity - ensuring the uninitiated stay that way. What's wrong with spelling it out so we can all understand? From the CEOs with their CDOs, KPIs and YOYs to the WVM tweeting OMGs and WTFs, a whole new language is emerging which soon only teenagers and city brokers will be able to decode. Combine the rise of the TLA with people's inability to distinguish between texting and writing and we're all USCWAP. The new school texts for Shakespeare should make for interesting reading;
Macbeth: Q4U " Is this a blade ic b4 me?"
Romeo and Juliet: ORMO, RMO, whr 4 R U RMO?
However, my personal favourites are the TLAs that are actually longer than the words they replace. WWW takes 3x as long to say as worldwide web. WWF for the World Wildlife Fund is equally inefficient.
However, I like the Japanese use of wwwww to infer laughter in a text message. It refers to the verb 'warau' - to laugh - and can be used to indicate how funny a reader finds a comment. So, WwwwwwwwW is much funnier than WwwwW and infinitely more expressive than the tedious LOL.
TTFN
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