Now that we’re well into the new decade, it might be worth noting that the year 2010 has apparently come as a bit of a technological disappointment to many.
According to a recent Zogby International survey, nearly a third of Americans said they thought there would be more technological advances by the year 2010. There were no high-tech specifics provided, but who’s not miffed that Wal-Mart doesn’t stock Star Trek-style transporters alongside Jetsons-style flying cars (for when the transporter is on the fritz)? This is the 21st century, people.
The poll of more than 3,000 adults showed many were less-than-enthusiastic about how far we have come since…well, since surveys were invented, perhaps? “The age group most likely to be disappointed with the current level of technological advancement are 35- to 54-year-olds (36 per cent),” Zogby said in a statement. Seems like a bit of youth envy there. Just because they can’t text, tweet, rip, burn and post at the same time…
Indeed, “those aged 18-30 are much less likely than older generations to say the technological advancements up until now have exceeded their expectations,” Zogby added.
About 21 per cent of people believe we are more technologically advanced than they thought we would be by 2010, while 37 per cent believed we are on target for their expectations. There was no word on whether these expectations included finding a way for survey totals to add up to 100 per cent for once.
List of words to be banished
2009, for its part, did not disappoint when it came to yielding high-tech candidates for Lake Superior State University’s annual “List of Words to Be Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness.”
In addition to “shovel-ready,” “bromance” and “chillaxin,” tech-related words on the list included “sexting,” shorthand for sexy text messaging; tweeting, retweeting and tweetaholics, terms made popular by users of the Twitter networking Web site; and Facebook’s use of “friend” as a verb, as in: “his cruel tweet made me unfriend him immediately.”
On a technologically anachronistic note, one list contributor asked whether there was an “app” (short-hand for “application,” obviously) for making that annoying word go away. Blame the iPhone for this one – “app” is so 1986…
And just so we can produce a superb segue, here’s a humourous heads up: Released recently by Switzerland’s Azure Talon Software, the iLaugh app for the iPhone is a jokes database that pulls content from various online sources. The end result is a new joke every time you open the app. Random example: “I Still Miss My Ex. But My Aim Is Getting Better!”
Call that one a mulligan…
