Nice bit of sunshine this morning. Perfect for a blog that might just be celebrating its seventh birthday.
I looked up what seven year-olds are into. Friends Lego (seriously?), hover footballs, polystyrene rocket launchers, My First Sewing Kit and spider robots. Well, a wordy waffle about something irrelevant will have to do.
After all, that's what I've spent the last 1853 posts doing since 2013.
It has occurred to me though, that the world has changed a lot since I sat down and wrote The Trouble with Blogging. Yesterday, in the park, I was thinking about all the words that have made their way into our language over the last seven years - words that we know very well, but back then would have been mystifying. Here are seven of the best:
Selfie (n). a photograph that you take of yourself, usually with a smartphone, often published to social media.
Back in 2013, this word was just coming into usage I think. I remember being at a summer party at a fancy venue, when a colleague whipped out a phone to take a picture of himself in front of an owl.
"Want me to take it for you?" I asked.
"Nah. It's a selfie," he responded, angling his head into the frame.
I thought that was weird.
Bae (n). informal. someone you love; a boyfriend or girlfriend.
I didn't believe this was a real word at first. Years ago I went for an interview at a company called BAE Systems - turns out to be a very different kind of thing.
Vape (v). to inhale nicotine or another drug as vapour rather than smoke, especially using an e-cigarette.
It might surprise you, but I'm in favour of vaping. I mean, as a substitute for smoking, not to take up as a leisure pursuit. It's much better to trail through a cloud of strawberry-flavoured steam than a toxic cloud of cigarette smoke. I've no idea whether it's better for you, but it's at least a bit more sociable.
Brexit (n). the exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union.
This would have been perplexing in 2013. To be honest it's been perplexing since 2016 as well, but seven years ago the word was unheard of. In fact, I remember it starting off as a colloquialism: the BBC definitely didn't use it at first, as it fell under street-slang. Then it was everywhere, and its little history as a word is now pretty well-known. In the cabinet though, even up until this year, the government office responsible was known as the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union. We do tend to overcomplicate things in the United Kingdom. Still, the less said about Brexit, the better.
Fake News (n). false stories that appear to be news, spread on the Internet or using other media, usually crafted to influence political views, or as a joke.
We've always had a wry view of the papers making stuff up for sensationalist reasons, but we never had a global name for it. Thanks to the outgoing President of the United States, we now do. And it's one of the worst things that could have happened. Who arbitrates which media is fake and which is true? How can you tell? When the subject of a news story whinges about it being 'fake news' half the world agrees and the other half raises its eyebrows and questions whether the content of an article can speak objectively about the article, or whether (as usual) there's a huge reason for them to be decrying the story as 'fake news'. I wish it weren't a thing, but it is. It turns out to have been one step away from 'fake election' and two steps from 'fake democracy'.
Post-Truth (adj). relating to a situation in which people are more likely to accept an argument based on their emotions and beliefs, rather than one based on facts.
You could argue that 'fake news' is a symptom of a post-truth world. I don't think this concept existed seven years ago, and if it did, there might not have been a name for it. Social media plays a significant role here, as it's managed to create echo-chambers for people to resonate in. The only encouraging thing I can think of post-truth is that eventually it will collapse and create a hunger for real truth.
Lockdown (n). an emergency situation in which people are not allowed to freely enter, leave, or move around in a building or area because of danger.
This word existed, but it wasn't needed in civilian circles before 2020... unless of course you were in the boy band Blue, who famously had the 'system up with the top down, got the city on lockdown' as long ago as 2002. I can only assume that their driving was so poor, all of London had to stay indoors while they blasted the streets with their terrible loud music.
These days of course, we're all familiar with lockdowns. It's still striking that back in February I was shocked that the whole of Northern Italy was shutdown because of this virus. I was shocked, I tell you. Here we are at the other end of the year, taking national lockdowns in our stride.
Life has changed a lot.
I wonder what words will emerge in the next seven years? If a time-traveller came back and listed them, I bet we'd scoff. Made-up nonsense! What in the world is a quantum nibble? How do you use a rombustable, and where can you download Instathought?
Then, made-up nonsense seems to be my speciality, if seven years of random blogging are anything to go by. I don't want the world to change. Sometimes I think I'd be better off in the world of polystyrene rocket launchers and spider robots.
Happy birthday, little blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment