Word Nerd: Internet Influence
Let’s think for a moment about the 1990s. For some a moment might be too much for others it might be a welcome nostalgia nudge.
After all the nineties introduced fashion statements like grunge and the music genre hip hop. One influenced the other. TV shows and the workplace became more relaxed in attitude. But one, if not the biggest contribution to life, was the WWW. No, not World Wide Wrestling—the World Wide Web or what we mostly call the Internet (and now it’s such a ubiquitous aspect it’s not even capitalized anymore). The internet was still in its dial-up infancy.
Since this is my Word Nerd post I’m going to focus on how the internet contributed to our cultural lexicon. Here are words that came out of the internet age:
viral: an infection that used to be related to health like how a cold can be spread, and in the same manner misinformation, memes, and other aspects can be quickly spread from one person’s computer to another.
catfish: it still refers to that strange whiskered fish but has taken on the meaning of being duped, usually when it comes to internet dating profiles. Read here for the backstory.
ghost: not like Casper, yet the term shares with the friendly entity the ability to disappear without warning or reason.
cookie: not the sweet treat you’re thinking of—instead it’s that little bit of information that websites use to keep track of user information. It’s not always so sweet to have personal data kept in a business file.
hallucination: not LSD related yet in the same sense that what you are looking at on the screen is not always real or to be trusted. Now that AI has entered our lives there is more hallucinations than ever before.
stream: relating to flow, like how water moves, information and more commonly, entertainment like movies, flow from our tech into our lives. No longer do we have to wait for our weekly episodes of our favorite sit-coms as some station no doubt is streaming Friends or The Dick Van Dyke Show 24/7.
24/7: the concept of easy access around the clock didn’t start with the internet, although it brought it to the forefront that information can be had at the push of a button at anytime day or night.
troll: these despicable creatures are found living under bridges in folklore and are all about harm and deception, which makes a perfect description of those who hide behind websites and do mischief with misinformation.
I could probably come up with a couple more but I really want to go stream another Death in Paradise episode and I’ve got to get an email out before being accused of ghosting, and I better clear out my cookies before a troll finds them.
Pam Webb 