{"id":3256,"date":"2015-03-15T21:45:24","date_gmt":"2015-03-15T21:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=3256"},"modified":"2016-08-14T22:54:20","modified_gmt":"2016-08-14T22:54:20","slug":"how-technology-is-changing-language-and-the-way-we-think-about-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/how-technology-is-changing-language-and-the-way-we-think-about-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"How technology is changing language and the way we think about the world"},"content":{"rendered":"

By David Glance<\/a>, University of Western Australia<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

We are getting used to the idea of rapidly developing technologies changing what we can do and how we do things. What most people haven\u2019t considered is how technologies affect our language and how these changes are affecting the way we speak and even the way we think.<\/p>\n

One of the key ways we see this is when the name of a company becomes a way of doing something involving any product that is similar. Classic examples are \u201cto hoover\u201d which came from the early dominance of vaccuum cleaners from the Hoover Company<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Googling becomes a verb<\/h2>\n

More significantly is the use of the term \u201cto google\u201d which first came to prominence<\/a> in 2002 when the American Dialect Society declared it word of the year. Later, in 2009, they declared<\/a> \u201cgoogle\u201d to be the the word of the decade.<\/p>\n

Google had become a generic word meaning \u201cto search the Internet\u201d with any search engine, not just Google itself. But googling has become much more than just the mere act of typing words into a text box and clicking a button. We now understand the subtext when someone declares \u201cI have googled you\u201d or even that they have googled themselves. The idea that this act can now exert a powerful effect on the opinion we form of others has even resulted in laws formulated<\/a> by the European Union giving individuals rights over search engine companies to have information about them removed in order to be \u201cforgotten\u201d.<\/p>\n

Google has now become our collective global memory and googling is the process by which we access those memories. This, in turn, is simply a process that we have always engaged with called \u201ctransactive memory<\/a>\u201d in which we turn to people around us, usually people we know, to help us recall facts and memories. The invention of the Gutenberg press allowed us to outsource people to books. The difference now though is that Google is now always with us, has a vast database of information that it is getting increasingly better at letting you access, with the vaguest of questions. This in turn has had a dramatic effect on what we are able to achieve, not only as individuals, but as a society.<\/p>\n

The act of computer programming for example has become much easier through the ability to learn new computer languages and solve problems by \u201cgoogling\u201d the answers. It could be argued that the boom in mobile phone apps would not have been possible without Ggoogle providing a mechanism to access the \u201ctransactive memories\u201d of the thousands of knowledgeable programmers with the answers to any developer\u2019s questions.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, it has been [Google] themselves who have resisted<\/a>, even at times through legal threats, the spread of \u201cgoogle\u201d being used beyond its reference to the company. This is because if it does enter the language as a common term, Google could lose<\/a> the protection of the name as a trademark. If Google becomes a common term, to mean any generic search, it could become a \u201cgeneric trademark\u201d like Cellophane, Aspirin, Escalator and others.<\/p>\n

Industries become uberized<\/h2>\n

In a different example of a verb that has come from a proper noun but may have just as significant an impact on our social lives, we have \u201cto uberize\u201d. This comes from the company Uber<\/a> whose business approach has disrupted an industry by using mobile apps backed with data analytics to provide cheaper taxi services to consumers. The concept of \u201cuberization\u201d has taken the general meaning of disrupting any industry through the use of technology to circumvent unnecessary bureaucracy and legislation. What is interesting about the use of the term uberization is that again, the subtext is not just about the actual process of transforming an industry into something more efficient or productive. Saying that an industry needs to be \u201cuberized\u201d is as much a commentary about its unwillingness to change, modernise and really meet consumers\u2019 needs. This context is being built up with every new development in the ongoing battles and controversies<\/a> that Uber is facing as it pushes through its disruption of the taxi industry.<\/p>\n

Uber\u2019s less successful contribution to our language has been the concept of \u201csurge pricing<\/a>\u201d. The concept embodies<\/a> basic economic principles to ensure that there are taxis willing to pick up consumers at the busiest times. It turns out that this is too hard for most consumers (and reporters) to understand and they have interpreted it simply as unfair price gouging.<\/p>\n

As a new term, it is an interesting example however of how a term that was supposed to have a specific meaning has been turned into something completely different through popular usage.<\/p>\n

How much has changed<\/h2>\n

There are many conversations that we could have today that would mean little to someone from 2005. Even though the definition of specific words could be given, it would need the entire context of how they have developed through the interplay of technology, individuals and society to have any real meaning. This is not the first time this has happened in history but certainly the increase in the pace of change has resulted in our language changing equally rapidly, and with it, our thoughts.<\/p>\n

On a final historical note, you can wonder what George Bernard Shaw would have understood by the following statements? \u201cMy mother was hacked last night.\u201d \u201cWhat a great meal – I\u2019ll upload it!\u201d \u201cIf anyone\u2019s out there, can you inbox me?\u2019 \u201cHow many steps did you get today?\u201d \u201cWill you torrent me the next series?\u201d \u201cI\u2019ve given up on windows.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>.
\nRead the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By David Glance, University of Western Australia We are getting used to the idea of rapidly developing technologies changing what we can do and how we do things. What most people haven\u2019t considered is how technologies affect our language and how these changes are affecting the way we speak and even the way we think. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":6179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3256"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3256"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3257,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3256\/revisions\/3257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}