Months ag
o, I wrote about the communication phenomenon of jargon, the tendency of some occupations or groups to develop their own language, whether for expediency (for example, restaurant workers), secrecy (spies), or obfuscation (the insurance industry). When I was teaching Communication at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, my students loved to discuss jargon and they loved to provide me with examples of jargon from their own part-time jobs.
In all this discussion of jargon, I failed to notice one area that is riddled with jargon and is right in front of my nose--the blogging world. Blogging is an occupation (hobby, passion?) that is filled with jargon. Just ask yourself how many blogging terms you actually know the meaning of? If you are like me, you probably only understand a few of them. Are all these blogging words and concepts really needed or is it just part of the blogger's mentality to create new terminology?
Some blogging jargon I've actually figured out; some, I haven't. I'm sure you can add more terms to this list:
o, I wrote about the communication phenomenon of jargon, the tendency of some occupations or groups to develop their own language, whether for expediency (for example, restaurant workers), secrecy (spies), or obfuscation (the insurance industry). When I was teaching Communication at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, my students loved to discuss jargon and they loved to provide me with examples of jargon from their own part-time jobs.In all this discussion of jargon, I failed to notice one area that is riddled with jargon and is right in front of my nose--the blogging world. Blogging is an occupation (hobby, passion?) that is filled with jargon. Just ask yourself how many blogging terms you actually know the meaning of? If you are like me, you probably only understand a few of them. Are all these blogging words and concepts really needed or is it just part of the blogger's mentality to create new terminology?
Some blogging jargon I've actually figured out; some, I haven't. I'm sure you can add more terms to this list:
- avatar (Wasn't this some alien king in Star Wars?)
- back links (That would be the second half of the golf course, right?)
- Etsy (bitsy spider)
- page rank (I was thinking "name, rank, and serial number.")
- RSS (Coming from a military family, I've had my fill of acronyms.)
- SEO (see RSS)
- traffic (As a driver, I used to think this was a bad thing.)
- viral marketing (This sounds really scary.)
- widget (This is my favorite! I love how it sounds! Isn't a widget that hoop you shoot the ball through in croquet?)
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10 comments:
It took me forever to figure out "meme" and some of the other terms. There are some I don't understand. I still don't know the origins of some of the terms (meme, etsy, widget, avatar.)
I also have a problem with all the jargon regardless if it's chat, web, seo, and I will totally disregard texting. The young people especially hip hop can leave me out of all of that also. Redneck language I do not understand at all even if I am from the South
geeks just LOVE weird words & acronyms :)
not that all bloggers are geeks..but many are
HTML was one of the first terms I came across the blogging world. and yes widget sounds cute too.lol...
If it were not for my techie wife, Laura, I would not know how to delete email, much less what many of these blogging terms mean.
It is nice to have technical support close by me!
Yes! This is an entirely new culture with its own slang. I like "pingback" (played with a paddle and a little white ball), and "trackback" (following the same trail home again).
That gave me a good chuckle. There are some I still don't know. Some I knew, some I didn't and had to look up. Like meme. After seeing it a few times, I finally thought, what the hell IS that? and googled it.
Hope you are staying warm in these deep freeze we are in!
~Kelly
http://www.30somethingandsearching.today.com/
I still don't know them all. I learn them as I need them. My spouse calls it "Blogger World Language." Blogging truly is its own world.
I am chuckling for so many reasons now! Thanks for that. I've begun to understand a decent amount of blogging jargon, but it took a long time and most of that came from interacting with young people at a site I was moderating.
Gamers have their own jargon too, to mention another group. Sadly, I've learned way too much of that as well.
Like all those who commented before me, some terms I understand and have learned to use in their proper context, whereas others I know academically what they mean but it still doesn't make sense! IYKWIM! (That's one I learned!) Still don't know what an Etsy is. Anyone?
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