Before I begin, let me apologize to those of you who recognize my abuse of the writings of others; my point is not to get a grade by not plagiarizing but rather to inform, to get my point across, and even, though as a last resort, to communicate to you certain ideas and concepts that you may not find readily familiar.
I love the English language, I really do. I know that as a computer-type, I'm supposed to be barely literate, able to express myself only in words that bear almost no resemblance to anything Will Shakespeare or Thomas Jefferson, much less my 6th grade teacher, Mrs. Bergstrom, would recognize. Still and all, I love the language, and I find that because of that, I can talk with people about those activities and constructs I enjoy the most.
The reason I mention this is because I have noticed over the years that the single biggest problem-causing factor our members have with computers is the language. Ideally, language is used to communicate; that is, enable one person to pass knowledge to another effectively and efficiently. Well, that's great until we get to computers, and then we have some serious and funny problems. The language we use so commonly in our daily lives now becomes the barrier to communication between people of dissimilar experiences and backgrounds.
Part of the problem, of course, is that technology is moving and advancing faster than at any time in our combined histories, and unlike earlier ages, the evolution of the English language just can't keep up. Another reason is that marketers, those who are responsible for ensuring their "latest and greatest" products will be remembered by you, the purchasing public. Thus, we have eMachine, iPod, and all the other nonsense words we have come to expect from the mouths of the computer hierarchy. Also, from the mouths of the earlier computer professionals, we have such wonderful terms as mouse (not our friendly, furry, little rodent), window (not an opening in a wall or roof that admits light and/or air), and other redefined English words.
All of these confusing and mystifying words, phrases, and other terms have been brought to you because the computer has become, for better or for worse (sorry Lynn), the primary tool of the late 20th Century forward into the foreseeable future, around which all other activities and tools revolve. Our dictionaries haven't had a chance to keep up with all of the new definitions of existing words or to add the new words we now commonly encounter.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the MVCUG conducted many seminars for our community. One of the best, and certainly one of the most popular was put on by Jayne Buono, a woman who hates computers but knows how to use them. In her talks, she frequently made reference to the future: "If you cannot use a computer, then by (2010, 2015, 2020, the year changed each time she gave the class) you will be unemployable except for a few manual labor jobs." Well, time has proven her correct, though a bit earlier than she had anticipated.
One of the major problems we have is that words change, suddenly, and a word that we thought was a verb is now a noun, adverb, adjective, and sometimes an entire sentence. If you don't know what a word is or what it represents, then you lose the tenor and thrust of the conversation, and as noted above, effective communication ceases; all you are left with is the creation of more hot air, carbon dioxide, and waste noise. Unfortunately, I must refer you to Mr. Lewis Carroll (aka the Reverend Mr. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) when he said in Through the Looking-Glass, "'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.'" So say many of those who develop and/or market computer technology to those of us who suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous language abuse.
Of course, there are those who say that because English is a living language, we are just uncomfortable as the language changes and evolves around us. This is not abuse of the English language; it is the very breath of life: change. To keep from being sticks in the mud, we must persevere, adapt, and overcome these transformations to what I sincerely hope is your native tongue.
Still, what about those of us who grew up in an earlier time and have problems keeping up with all this new terminology and the concepts that guide them? How do we get a handle on this stuff? And most of it you can't even see.... What are we to do? (And for you younger people, don't worry: Your turn will come, just as our parents' did, and their parents'....)
Well, in my original concept for this article, I was going to introduce a number of terms and define them. That was a great idea, until I looked at my every-growing list of several hundred words. That was when I came to the conclusion that I don't work for the Oxford English Dictionary, nor do I work for the Oxford American Dictionary -- the two canonical sources of word definitions for the English language, no matter on which side of the pond you happen to reside. Rather than trying to keep up with all these words and making up stuff as I went along, I'm going to direct you to a site that will help you do your own research. The site is called Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org), and perhaps because of its reputation and its sources, I remind you that you can't always trust what you read; however, at least you can read what others have written here, and perhaps they believe.
Another site you might try, seeing that I said I wasn't a dictionary a little bit ago, is Dictionary.com (http://dictionary.reference.com/). Look at the top of the page - everything below is advertising or links to other pretty good sites that may help you with your little glitch. Another site, one designed to help you overcome all those acronyms we love so much, is Acronym Finder (http://www.acronymfinder.com). (Watch out for this site, however; they love the "pop-under" window that says your computer has problems - just close the window using the window's close button - do not click in the window.)
Using these sites and tools will help you understand and keep up with the new terminolgy we use. The down side to using them, though, is that you will start to talk like us, and your friends will start giving you those strange looks. Oh well - no cure for the language of tomorrow.
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