I guess I owe it to the profession to weigh in. I am a PE (professional engineer) in Civil Engineering. It takes 4-5 years minimum at an accredited engineering school (about to become a masters degree, I have one) + 8 hour fundamentals of engineering test covering everything technical you've ever seen in your life + 4 years working for the man doing engineering work + 8 hour professional engineering exam covering your field....The PE exam is basically like the Bar exam for lawyers, but its completely open book and you can bring any reference you want. It only has about a %50 passing rate. In a nutshell, it's 8 hours of hell and if you pass it consider yourself lucky no matter how smart you think you are.
After all that, you're qualified to design things with the idea of protection of life and property and motivation towards public good. You take an oath and sign, seal, and certify your designs to essentially guarantee your work for pretty much as long as you're around (and maybe even after).
You ask does it bother me... If you're a techie with a 2-year degree or less calling your self a software engineer designing video games, then YES it absolutely does bother me. If you're really an engineering graduate, scientist, or even some professional programmers with the credentials to back it up and the experience to know why the title is important and the responsibility to care for human life and public good, then by all means you should have the right to take a test in your field and become a certified professional... whatever the title. It's not just a club to join, or a piece of paper, or a license to operate or anything like some people describe; its more of an assurance to the public that you do indeed know what you're doing.
Hope this was useful and gives some insight into why people get kinda "huffy" when the title of engineer gets abused.
BTW - The steel ring ceremony popular in Canada actually is practiced in the US, but not required. I've done it and it is pretty meaningful. I won't go into it all, but basically you get a steel ring to remind you of your dedication to the public welfare and good.