Did you notice in a recent movie about a group of older
adults vacationing in India how two of the characters struggled to make sense
of computers? One woman played by (Judy Dench) was trying to explore vacation
possibilities in India and the other, (Maggie Smith) was asking advice on how
she could order biscuits online. Far from being the exception, the scene is
familiar to those of us who didn’t grow up in the age of computers.
There was time when ‘Blackberries in Radio Shack,’ conjured up
fat, plump fruit nestled among headsets and batteries. Today in the technology
world, a handheld Blackberry® is generally known as a mobile smartphone
that can perform computer functions, i.e., Internet, messaging, word
processing.
Here is a list of new tech meanings of words
used today and how they were used not so long ago.
Word
|
Old
|
New
|
Applications
|
Forms to be written when applying for a job or school.
|
Computer database, word
processors and multimedia programs.
|
Back up
|
Move carefully, there’s a bus behind you!
|
Copy files to a second medium
(disk) to prevent loss if the computer fails.
|
Blue Tooth
|
Not a good color choice when matching a cap to your teeth.
|
A way of communicating
wirelessly over short distances.
|
Clip art
|
Cutting out cartoons when you were in grade school.
|
Computer-generated pictures.
|
Cold Boot
|
Get in out of the cold and take your boots off.
|
Start up the computer when it
is not already on.
|
Desktop
|
The hinged lid on a desk, not to be slammed down.
|
A metaphor to portray file
systems on the computer’s home screen.
|
Font
|
Where birds take a drink or bath.
|
Lettering used in word
processing.
|
Hard Drive
|
A way of driving that can damage the car’s transmission.
|
An inflexible magnetic disk
with greater storage capacity than a CD.
|
Keyboard
|
Black and white part of a large percussion musical instrument.
|
Part of the computer that
contains keys and allows you to type.
|
Kindle
|
Start a fire.
|
A handheld computer for reading
books electronically.
|
Mouse
|
A little rodent.
|
A handheld device that moves
the cursor on the computer screen by rolling a plastic ball along a flat
surface.
|
As we face the
challenges of computer vocabulary we can take heart remembering, “Everything
will be all right in the end, trust me, if it isn’t all right it’s not the
end.”* The end of the ever expanding computer vocabulary is nowhere in sight.
*
Final statement in “The Most Exotic Marigold Hotel.”
Angela Menghraj
Photo:
"Bluetooth" by Neil Turner
https://www.flickr.com/photos/neilt/
