Change, it is said, is the only constant in life. And that’s certainly true on the web where six months is a lifetime. As website owners we need to ask ourselves if we are keeping up to date, or are changes creeping in without us noticing?
Doubtlessly, the hardware and software we use gets updated regularly, and our content is refreshed as a matter of course. Nevertheless, do our ideas, ways of thinking and language keep pace in the same manner?
Perhaps not when you consider how the English language has evolved to accommodate new technology. For instance, not so long ago a mobile was something you hung up to amuse a baby, Moby was a whale and wireless referred to your transistor radio. Twenty years ago a template was something you drew around prior to cutting, and a blueprint was a model or a set of technical drawings. Bebo, meanwhile, was a refrain from a song and Google looked like a typing error. A keyboard was a musical instrument, while a script was the lines in a play, the web was where a spider lived and surfing was confined to the sea.
A mouse, on the other hand, never lived on your desk; a contacts book did but should have been safely kept in the desk drawer. Backing up was something that you did with your car, and when you got infected with a virus you went to the doctor. Trojan horses resided only in mythology and firewalls were made of bricks. A cursor was someone who swore a lot.
E-mail used only to be heard occasionally in Yorkshire by postmen delivering letters to surprised recipients, while a full inbox would be a tray full of paper. It was also a time when leaving your dongle behind would elicit smutty laughs and logging on immediately evoked images of checked shirts and chainsaws. Passwords were phrases that only had to be remembered by secret agents and childhood gangs. Wicked and bad did not contain any positive connotations.
Amusing, hopefully, as these examples are, it does raise an interesting point to bear in mind when writing content for the web. Remember that the audience is arriving at your site from all kinds of backgrounds, cultures and age groups. What may be crystal clear to you as the author may be ambiguous or downright misleading for a reader approaching the text from a wholly different set of reference points.
