Cheat Sheet for the Digital Age 2: Back with More

What follows is a continuation of my previous blog which offered explanations of colloquial internet terms I’m questioned about the most often during my presentations on the Alchemy of Business, Life and Technology in the U.S. and Canada, and, as previously stated, these terms are endless in number. Enjoy these humorous educational tidbits of the digital age!

BYOD

Bring Your Own Device has become increasingly popular since today’s Consumer Technology generally far outpaces that which most companies provide their Knowledge Workers. Providing a stipend to let your employees choose a smartphone, tablet or laptop while letting Apple or Samsung handle maintenance is very tempting. Balance the risks with rewards.

Emoji

Emoji is a Japanese word meaning picture (e) + letter (moji). Emojis are small images that are generally used in text messages to better communicate. These cartoon-like icons range from smiley faces to animals, buildings, hearts and more. Emojis have grabbed a strong foothold in American culture, especially among the youth, who are obsessed with messaging on smartphones.

Meme

These are great humorous images, videos, pieces of text, etc. that are copied (often with slight variations) and spread rapidly by Internet users. Not sure if you got it? Here are 13 of the best memes from 2013.

MOOC

A Massive Open Online Course is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the web. In addition to traditional course materials such as videos, readings, and problem sets, MOOCs provide interactive user forums that help build a community for students, professors, and teaching assistants.  The New York Times has a piece on MOOCS.

Phablet

A phablet (contraction of phone and tablet)  is a class of mobile device designed to combine or straddle the functions of a smartphone and tablet. Phablets are characterized by their large screen, which complement screen-intensive activity such as mobile web browsing and multimedia viewing. Phablets may also include software optimized to facilitate sketching, note-taking and annotation. The Samsung’s Galaxy Note is credited with pioneering the worldwide phablet market when launched in 2011.

In January 2013, IHS reported that 25.6 million phablet devices were sold in 2012 and estimated that these figures would grow to 60.4 million in 2013, and 146 million by 2016.

QR Code

Abbreviated from Quick Response Code, is the trademark for a type of matrix barcode first designed for the automotive industry in Japan. The QR Code system has become popular outside the automotive industry due to its high efficiency and large data storage capacity, including url links, geo coordinates, and text. The other key feature of QR Codes is that instead of requiring a chunky hand-held scanner to scan them, smartphones can scan them.

Retweet

This is when you repost or forward a message posted by another user in Twitter.

Snapchat

Snapchat is a mobile app you can download to your iPhone or Android smartphone, which you can then use to “chat” with friends through photos, videos and captions. You can sort of think of it to be like texting with pictures or videos.

Here is a good post from Forbes that describes Snapchat in more detail.

Trending

This is when a topic is or is becoming popular on a news or social networking website.

YOLO

YOLO stands for “You Only Live Once,” defined as internet slang.

About Author
Philippe Cesson is CEO of CESSON 3.0, a marketing and training company based in California, with offices in San Diego, New York City and Miami. Cesson’s speciality is helping companies succeed in social media, bridging the generational divide and “Navigating the New Normal.” Visit our site at https://www.cesson.com

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