Violence linguistically imbedded in our technology
Violence linguistically imbedded in our technology

Violence 'rammed' home in technology

It is rather intriguing to note the imbedded violent and negative linguistic connotations in many of the words associated with technology and digital devices.

We can "hammer" or "slam" a key/keyboard or "mute", "block," "unfollow", "unfriend" or "delete" a person.

There are "viruses," "bugs" and "malware" to avoid. And yet, if a post goes "viral" it could be a good or bad thing depending on the context.

We "zip" files and worry about how much "RAM" we have on our device.

We can "kill" or "destroy" a document or virus and "boot" or "reboot" our computer.

When something is "down" it's never good news.

Printers get "jammed" and emails "spammed".

Malicious people can "hack" and "attack" our system.

The violent subtleties found in this vocabulary is a concern when it is considered how much of our lives are imbued with technology.