WTF

Yeah, I figured that would get your attention. No, I’m not here to discuss the “F” word, since I already did that months ago in another blog post. Today’s topic deals with the variety and hilarity of acronyms being hurled at us daily. And I’m not talking about the plethora of governmental agency acronyms here, but all the others we use every day.

Being a Gen-X dude, yet only a couple of years removed from being a boomer, I’ll admit to not always being up on the latest lingo, and with today’s penchant for reducing phrases to a few letters, it’s not easy to be on the cutting edge. As I traveled down the rabbit hole in search of these acronyms, I learned so much, and while I am a fan of writing things out, I have come to realize how useful these abbreviations are. So, to paraphrase my up-and-coming social media influencing granddaughter: Let’s get into it.

LOL – Hey, here’s an easy one, right? Not so fast! This one has morphed through the ages. The first time I replied with this to a message from my mom, she thought I meant Lots Of Love, instead of Laughing Out Loud. Ah, perspective.

YOLO – This one, for You Only Live Once, is misguided. I prefer YODO, for You Only Die Once, since we Live Every Day (LED), so let’s get to it, people!

FOMO – Fear Of Missing Out is a category I often belong to. There always seems to be multiple cool things going on each weekend, and life being what it is, equal amounts of things I need to do, so I end up missing out on so many fun events.

FOBI – Fear Of Being Included is a mantra for anti-social folks and introverts alike.

WIP – Works In Progress. This is used in manufacturing and accounting, but also by writers like yours truly, who have too many WIPs going at one time, LOL.

PIN – This one stands for Personal Identification Number, but how often have you heard someone ask for your PIN number? Okay, so you want my personal identification number number? Hmmm…

SONAR – I was surprised to find this was an acronym, since I always thought it was an actual word. In case there are others uninformed like me, it stands for Sound Navigation And Ranging.

RADAR – Another term I associated with a name (how have I gotten this far in life?), but is an acronym for Radio Detection And Ranging

LASER – What? Laser isn’t actually a word? <mind-blown emoji here> It stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Isn’t learning fun? I wonder if Doctor Evil knew about this? “We’ll shoot a ‘laser’ into the ‘ozone’ layer…”

ZIP – I’ve used this one forever, but never knew it stood for Zone Improvement Plan. It was instituted by the USPS (c’mon, you know this one!) in 1963 as a way to improve mail sorting and delivery speed. Kinda funny when you think about it, since paper mail is now considered snail mail, right?

RAM – Random Access Memory is confusing to me. How can a term associated with something as precise as a computer have the word random in there? I mean, my own memory is random enough as it is. I don’t need the device I count on to also be random about things. Sheesh!

CAPTCHA – Yes, the anti-robot detection thingy. It was interesting to learn this stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. Damn, that’s a mouthful. This acronym also sounds like gotcha, which is fitting for a test trying to catch evil computers.

FUBAR – Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition. This one covers so much, doesn’t it? Yes, I realize another “F” word fits nicely here…

IMO – This is a cool way of saying In My Opinion.

IMHO – In My Humble Opinion is a different way to state IMO, while trying not to ruffle feathers.

OMG – Goes hand-in-hand with WTF, and the following three acronyms.

LMAO – Laughing My Ass Off.

LMFAO – Laughing My Fucking Ass Off.

ROTFLMAO – Rolling On The Floor Laughing My Ass Off

BRB – a quick way to let the person you’re texting with that you’ll Be Right Back, so they don’t go into a full-blown panic that you haven’t responded in, like, several nanoseconds. OMG!

TTYL – Talk To You Later is a cool way to end a conversation, while leaving the other person feeling optimistic there will be another conversation down the road.  

IRL – It’s a sad-but-true acronym in our social media world, where we’re increasingly separated from socializing In Real Life.

Speaking of, I need to get back to other parts of my real life. I hope you’ve enjoyed my trip down Acronym Lane today. I’m sure there are thousands more I haven’t covered, so feel free to leave yours in the comments section or on my Facebook page. I always love to read your replies. I’ll stay LASER focused and keep you on my RADAR. I might LOL, or state OMG as I read them, since you are all the best, IMHO. I’ll BRB next week, but for now, I’ll TTYL.

 And remember, whatever you are IRL, be a good one!

-Dave