Today on Bud’s Weekly Geek-out . . . which words, like selfie, did we not use, either in their current context, or at all, before the advent of smartphones?
Here’s a very small selection of those words . . .
Selfie – A self-portrait, typically taken with the front-facing camera on your phone.
Duckface – When taking a selfie, this is what you look like when you push your lips together in a half pucker, trying to make your lips look bigger and define your cheekbones.
Hashtag – It’s that little tic-tac-toe symbol we used to call “pound” when we only had the number keys on our phones. Now, it’s the universal way to group topics together.
Phablet – This is the portmanteau of phone and tablet, and generally a name given to devices with screens bigger than most phones, but smaller than most tablets.
Butt-dialing – When you sit on your phone which is, for whatever reason, in your back pocket, and you accidentally call up a friend without knowing it.
App – Short for application, it’s the generic term for the software we install on our smartphones, be it Angry Birds, Instagram, or Out of Milk.
Jailbreak/root – (real words, but used in different contexts pre-smartphone) Defeating the manufacturer’s safeguards to use your smartphone in ways they didn’t intend.
Dumbphone – A name given to cellular telephones which only made calls, stored phone numbers, and maybe played a greyscale version of Breakout. But they sure sounded good. =)
(from Zoner Emma): Photobomb – Taking advantage of smartphones’ typically slow cameras, this is the act of jumping in to a photo of which you were not meant to be the intended subject.
(from Zoner Kristin): Autocorrect – Your phone’s interpretation of what you were trying to type, and the source of my greatest modern-day entertainment. I find some of those so funny, I’m literally gasping for breath.
(from Zoner Charlotte): Sexting – Sexy texting. Not a bad idea at all, is it, Anthony Weiner?
(from Zoner Cole, from Korea): Retina – (real word/different pre-smartphone context) Apple’s high-resolution displays supposedly pixel-dense enough that individual pixels can’t be seen. I predict this may become one of those generic terms, like Xerox, Kleenex, and Frisbee (which are all trade names).
Can you think of a word I missed? Please, suggest it using the form below! I’ll append it to my list as I receive ’em. =) Bud
[contact-form-7 id=”7662″ title=”Geek-out – Smartphone words”]
