[Air-L] Metaphors in Technology

[Kevin Guidry]

On Sat, Jun 28, 2008 at 10:33 PM, Sabryna Cornish
<a135672 at wpo.cso.niu.edu> wrote:
> The internet as a disease is missing--this one was very popular when the internet was first being utilized by general society. Also, the internet as connection and disconnection. And of course the internet
> as transportation and its variations.

   I like those thoughts.  It's easy to joke about Sen. Steven's
"tubes" but that's a metaphor even technically-minded persons resort
to at times (useful when discussing bandwidth, for example).
   How about also including the Internet as a substance or a behavior
or whatever metaphors are used by those who study "Internet
addiction?"  And going beyond the Internet, the "car" metaphor is
ubiquitous in tech support (anti-virus definitions and OS patches as
oil changes, I've heard a few folks that use forms similar to those
used at oil change shops to present their potential services to
clients, etc.).


Kevin