Once upon a time, anyone who knew how to do anything with a personal computer away from switching it on would have consistently been called a "geek". Definitely, if you spend more than one hour each day using a computer for anything at all together work, you would have been thought to be uncool. Neverheless, recently the usage of computers has become something that more people do than not.
The very idea of something like Facebook 10 or 15 years ago may have set alarm bells buzzing among the awesome youngsters. Computer users socializing were similar to dogs rollerblading – not usual, unsettling to look at and something to be discouraged. But as personal computers have got cheaper and simpler to use, social networking is now very popular.
The boundary between "geek" and "chic" has been refined in many cases to a point in which it does not exist. In fact, the idea of "geek chic" has really taken off, and it's not even an issue for many youngsters who have matured in an age in which the Internet is pretty widespread. Now it's people who do not use personal computers that are regarded as a bit weird.
Like every social change, there can be discussion as to whether or not this has had overall appealing results. Undoubtedly, someone who works in computers or just considers them a pastime do not need to cringe every time they are asked what they're into. With any kind of mass use, a sensation can appeal to undesirable activity and promotion, but on balance most people seem to be satisfied with the diversity it has bought.
Computing And Language – A Marriage Made In Hell?
Around two decades ago, "computing language" meant a single thing, and was something simply understandable to educated programmers. Yet today, it is more likely to refer to a form of slang that is used among online communities. This has introduced combined results, many of which may be very good and others very, very bad.
Some people will probably be aware of "Leetspeak", which is really a specific term made op from characters other than letters – and therefore can not actually be "spoken". It's most commonly used among cyber-terrorist, gamers, or people seeking to be seen as related to those areas, and to the untrained eye is nonsensical and irritating.
The use of "text speak", or more frequently "txt spk" is also partly a result of the introduction of the Internet. Generally attained by dropping vowels from words (although not unnecessarily every vowel) along with the introduction of numbers and emoticons made from punctuation marks, it results in phrases like, "Gr8! So ur in2 txt spk? Me 2!" Those who desire to be taken seriously avoid it.
Lolspeak, most commonly viewed on the Lolcats website, is a mutation of text speak and took its name partly from the text speak abbreviation "lol" (laughing out loud). It combines text speak with the deliberate usage of an infantile form of speech – indeed, the Lolcats site is alternately referred to as, "I Can Has Cheezburgr?" To novices, these kinds of dialects are all very difficult.