Redundancy (or I've Had Enough of This Nonsense)

Welcome to your weekend dose of RaUM goodness. The focus of this entry is something that has been on my mind for some time and, as usual, it is a topic I wanted to share it with you. Any opinions and/or feedback would be appreciated. Maybe you have a better take on it than I do.

One thing that I truly hate about our fast-paced, instant-gratification society is the need to abbreviate everything. Usually I don't mind it and in certain forums I'd prefer it (online chats, tweets, etc). Admittedly, there is some intrinsic value to shortening phrases, words, etc. More importantly, however, is the overwhelming need for abbreviating certain things for the sake of conveying messages quickly to the ever-shortening attention spans of Americans.

I accept that we live in a world of soundbites. What truly bothers me is how people blindly use abbreviations in conjunction with a word that is included in the abbreviation. To illustrate my point, here are the three best examples:

1-BMI index (Body Mass Index index)
2-PIN number (Personal Identification Number number)
3-ATM machine (Automatic Teller Machine machine)

It is the epitome of redundancy and only shows how stupid most people are for not noticing. I'd be willing to be less harsh and say people are simply victims of clever catch phrases and tag-lines. Yet when I point out the fallacy of their use of the redundancy, they simply dismiss me as if I was pestering them - like a mosquito buzzing by their ear - or they roll their eyes and tell me to stop being so analytical.

I think accepting these 'little' (and increasingly common) mistakes in the modern English language is the first step in the de-evolution of American society (have you folks seen the movie Idiocracy?).

[pause]
Let me rethink that a bit... Maybe it's not THAT terrible but it does irk me quite a bit. It's not the fact that these poorly constructed abbreviations exists but, rather, how easily we accept them into our lexicon without thinking twice about what they mean.

I'll leave you with this thought: What else are we missing out on in our lives because we accept things at face value without taking a closer look?

Until next time, faithful reader......