Same Planet, Different Words

[bloodyrosemccoy]

MOM: I had the strangest experience on Facebook recently.

AMELIA: Oh?

MOM: Yes, it was bizarre. You see, I am in a group with some of my old classmates from school, and I posted a long comment about my views on healthcare. I have to admit, I was doing it partly because the guy who runs the group is a die-hard conservative, and I may have been baiting him a little. But the rest of the group started commenting on it, too, and they were getting a pretty good debate going, along with some jerks who were simply throwing insults. But then, a day or two later, I got on and found that my comment had been deleted! The guy said it was “irrelevant.” You are laughing—why?

AMELIA: You were trolling?

MOM: What?

AMELIA: You were trolling! You posted a rant on a messageboard, wank ensued, and then the mod put on his Mod Hat and baleeted the thread, declaring it OT.

MOM: What the hell did you just say?

AMELIA: The same thing you just said, only in jargon.

MOM: You mean this happens a lot?

AMELIA: Enough that it’s got its own vocabulary, yes. Welcome to the internets.

MOM: Oh, god.


And this is why I’m an anthropological linguist—I find it fascinating how very much language can adapt to describe the remarkable breadth of human experience. Mom can describe things totally out of my depth (the Sixties, for example, or Catholicism); and I have simple terms for things new to her experience, like the internet. Language is wonderfully flexible, and the stuff we come up with is infinitely creative.

Plus, there’s just something hilarious about being able to yell, “HEY, GUYS, MOM STARTED A FLAMEWAR!” Gives you warm fuzzies all over.

Comments

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

*grin* Ah, I see you've encountered the Blank Look, too. I most often find it when people excitedly ask, "What kind of book are you writing?"

My family calls it the "Shoe Shopping" look, after the Scrubs episode where it is revealed that the phrase "shoe shopping" will effectively cause any men in the conversation to glaze over, allowing the women to discuss intimate details in front of them.

[dark-phoenix54.livejournal.com]

I've frequently had the impression that, when trying to explain some computer or internet thing, I could say something like "Well, the framajammer interacts with the upcalta, and then the print queu activates, and if the file is in .FKDUP format, you get a 3-D moving picture" and they'd just nod with the Blank Look. It'd make just as much sense to them.

[gwalla.livejournal.com]

"It looks like you have to defraggle your motherdisk"

[dark-phoenix54.livejournal.com]

Yes, they would not think a thing of it if I were to do all that! After all, my FIL was about to put his keyboard into the dishwasher one day when he spilled pancake syrup in it!

[gwalla.livejournal.com]

OMG. Did you tell him before or after?

[dark-phoenix54.livejournal.com]

Oh, I caught him as he was going to do it, and said, in my usual gentle, kind way "Are you out of your fucking mind?@?!?"

The keyboard was borked anyway, though. I replaced it with an old one of mine, which he then got jam on. *sigh*