[Air-L] Metaphors in Technology

Patricia Lange pglange at yahoo.com
Sat Jun 28 18:31:34 PDT 2008


Another one might be the Internet as a "frontier." Much has been written and criticized on that. I just wrote a paper on that called "Living in YouTubia: Bordering on Civility that address this metaphor.

-Patricia G. Lange 
Postdoctoral Fellow
School of Cinematic Arts
University of Southern California


--- On Sat, 6/28/08, Gordon Carlson <gordycarlson at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Gordon Carlson <gordycarlson at gmail.com>
> Subject: [Air-L] Metaphors in Technology
> To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
> Date: Saturday, June 28, 2008, 12:23 PM
> Hello all,
> 
> Many of you have helped me compile a list of technology
> metaphors.
> Several asked to see the list.  So here we go.  The
> following is a
> list of metaphors related to technology and its use.  The
> emphasis is
> clearly on digital technology but some others are in there
> as well.
> 
> If you have additions to the list PLEASE do send them
> along, I would
> like to keep the list growing.  If you have a dispute or
> other comment
> that should make for interesting conversation, as
> metaphorical as it
> might be on a mail list.
> 
> Thanks for all your help!
> 
> active and inactive
> bandwidth
> blog - web log??
> blogosphere
> breadcrumbs
> brick and mortar
> broadband
> broken record (not digital but still a technology metaphor)
> bulletin boards
> calculating (as in a person is cold and calculating)
> chat "rooms"
> chatting
> citizen of the internet - netizen
> click
> cloud (storage and computing)
> cyberspace
> dashboard
> database
> deckware
> desktop
> dial a touch phone
> dial up internet access
> dialog boxes
> directory
> domain
> drop a packet
> email
> extranet
> files
> filing system
> firewall
> flame
> flaming
> folders
> forum
> forward (as in to forward an email)
> frames
> garbage can
> garbage in, garbage out
> gateway
> grinding (used in gaming to get lots of a resource)
> harvesting
> hit
> homepage
> hotspot
> hub
> inbox
> information superhighway
> instant messaging
> intranet
> link
> lurking
> menu
> mining, especially data mining
> mouse
> navigation
> open (as in a file or email)
> outbox
> owning someone (as in to defeat someone in a game, not
> unique to
> technology basis for pwned)
> palette
> portal
> programmed or hardwired people
> protocol
> 
> quad (a couple people mentioned this but I don't know
> why it is a
> metaphor, any help?)
> 
> recycle bin
> reply
> reserving a "seat" for an online course
> run
> search engine
> server
> shopping carts/basket
> slides in powerpoint
> spam
> speed dial (Opera browser)
> spyware
> surfing
> tabs
> tag
> tap (as in a line or phone which is no longer literal)
> terminal
> the computer going to "sleep"
> the whole concept of a virtual open house
> tree
> trojan horse
> trolling
> virus
> windows
> wiping out a team of players (gaming, not unique to
> technology)
> world wide web
> worm
> 
> -Gordon
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