Guest post by Emma Godfree for Cyber Awareness Month.
I have yet to meet a person or indeed an industry who don’t use acronyms or initialisms. I’m almost positive that most industries have their own set, their own special language with which to communicate to their customers, staff members, suppliers, etc.
For those of you who have yet to develop an interest in this, let me clarify.
Acronyms are initial letters of words which are pronounced as a separate, distinct word, such as NASA, IKEA (that’s the founders initials) or SIM. Whereas an initialism are letters of words that are pronounced separately, like CIA, MIA, FBI.
And, when we use these AIs!!!!! (that’s what I am going to call them), we feel clever, that we know what we are talking about, they save time and help improve communication. Right?!
Well, I’m here to challenge these beliefs.
First, I want to ask you a question. When you walk into a room and you’re about to deliver a report, or a speech, or something else equally as professional and important using terminology, acronyms and initialisms; do you do it with a preconceived notion of understanding from your audience?
AIs (you’ll get this in a minute) can most definitely make us look clever and knowledgeable, but they can also make us look unapproachable.
As an audience, we make an active decision based on a belief. I’m supposed to know what that means, but I don’t and if I ask, I’ll look like I don’t know what I’m doing. So, you make an active decision based on that belief. I’ll look unfit for my role, no way I’m going to ask.
This here is where misinterpretation and misunderstanding can happen which then lead to mistakes being made, which then lead to processes not being followed, timeframes not adhered to, regulatory requirements not being met, fines and reputational damage, the end of customer’s trusting you, loss of revenue, end of days, fire and brim….………I digress.
Are AIs saving time simply because, as above, no one asks what they mean; and if they did, would you not then have to spend the time explaining?
At this point, you almost do the dog walking itself. This situation where the dog runs in a direction the reason for which only he knows, realises his human isn’t with him, and runs all the way back to ask why you didn’t understand the missing explanation of why he went tearing towards that one patch of grass in the first place. And then he does it again, and again.
The longest initialism in the word is 56 letters long:
NIIOMTPLABOPARMBETZHELBETRABSBOMONIMONKONOTDTEKHSTROMONT
Can you imagine being their customer service agent:
‘Ring, ring!’ – (That’s the telephone)
‘Ring, ring!’
Click (customer service operative picking up the phone!): “Good morning, you’ve reached the NIIOMTPLABOPARMBETZHELBETRABSBOMONIMONKONOTDTEKHSTROMONT.
How can I help you today?”
‘Confused face emoji!’
So are we saving time, or does it come back to that preconceived notion of understanding!
Now, I want to just quickly address the previous ‘AIs improve communication’ point!
Let’s move on from the fact I’ve been using the initialism AI (told you you’d get it at some point) throughout this article, which means something very different to many of us, and deal with other AIs that can mean something to us, but something very different to others.
Someone said this to me recently: ‘I took a look at the PDA recently. It looked good’. Now, your mind may not have made the jump mine did, but I heard ‘I looked at the Public Display of Affection recently. It looked good!’
They actually meant this: ‘I took a look at the Personal Data Assessment’.
My partner works for a motor insurer, the initialism PI doesn’t mean personal information to him. It means personal injury.
In 2009, Iowa changed its Department of Elder Affairs to the Department of Aging!! I’m not sure how the older generation of Iowa felt about being under the DOA! (Just in case you hadn’t got it – Dead On Arrival).
There is one lats thing I want to share with you before I let you stop reading! Whilst researching for a talk I will be giving at the Future of Cyber conference on 7th November (that’s where this article came from), I found these:
KYS – Kill Your Self
182 – I Hate You
POS – Piece Of Sh*t
AITR – Adults In The Room
KPC – Keeping Parents Clueless
LMIRL – Lets Meet In Real Life
Sue – Suicide
Dep – Depression
SN – Send Nudes
I don’t have children, but even I know that communication, specifically among young people has changed dramatically over the last 10-20 years. And these, are just some of the AIs that they use during their everyday interactions.
If you are a parent or guardian, it is vitally important that you can understand how your young person communicates, but specifically the terminology and AIs they use. I know, we all like to think of AIs as useful, clever and brilliant tools for communication, but if you don’t understand what they mean, misunderstandings could lead to more than just a process not followed.
So, I’m going to end with this, we all like to understand, and we all like to be understood. But to do this, we must first learn to communicate plainly and with clarity.
Communication, particularly verbal communication is a privilege and one that not everyone is afforded. Without clear communication, understanding decreases almost instantly. Confidence decreases almost instantly and, as we have seen, mistakes will begin to be made, and lives could be at risk.
So, I implore you, FFS – please use acronyms and initialisms responsibly. You never know who is trying to understand.
