Is this even English??

I'm with you Skweek1 - I've spent over 30 years in IT and telecoms - including all the LAN, WAN, WiFi, Broadband and even voice - but as I see it, these 'apps' - which as we all know are just shorthand for applications are just gimmicks to sell smart phones and cartoon like fun content.

The language is, as many of you have said, confusing, unintelligible etc., etc.

But it is just a fashion fad based jargon - much like hula hoops or drainpipe trousers!

What it is not, is technology. In the same way that gaming systems are not technology.

It seems a lot of the effort put into "Social Media Tools" is creating a false impression of people being busy - or as an old colleague of mine once said - what I don't want is a team of "busy fools".

Most businesses today waste far too much time and effort on the latest 'gee-whizz' apps, or buy commercially available software with all the bells and whistle they will never use, but will pay for - Government departments are pretty good at that one.

The 'newspeak' language is OK for fun, but turns into meaningless gibberish at some point. And wow, look at how you can 'doctor' pictures in Snapchat, and live-stream music as you walk around in your virtual world.

Maybe I'm just being 'bah humbug'

I don't know if Ill ever catch up with memes, bitflips and geomojis.....

She's spent some time this morning patiently explains that there's no point in tapping the screen of her laptop because it is NOT an iPad ?

I called out to teen GD who is in the kitchen making herself eggy bread 'Did you know snapchat ..... online geofilters?'
'Yep!' came the cheerful response.
Then I told her I was laughing because she'd passed a test. Aren't GC wonderful?!

Nope can't understand that either, my gd is on snapchat. But I am bamboozled by it all, just give me my mobile and FB and some shopping on line

The darker side of memes:

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/04/political-memes-2016-election-hillary-clinton-donald-trump

The tools we use to communicate are becoming counterproductive to actual communication. It’s only getting easier to spread lies and respond with shrugs. The internet has become an endless theatre of virtual conflict, one in which we are all either willing or oblivious participants, and like it or not, it is on this battlefield that the nature of our reality will probably be decided.

There’s no clear answer to this dilemma save for one basic fact: those who value truth desperately need to find a way to make the truth more plausible.

amt I think a meme is what we used to call a craze - a concept or habit (or even a cartoon image) that gets copied on by everyone until it is universal. Then it may become a permanently accepted bit of knowledge or habit, or it may be abandoned in favour of a different meme that seems more relevant or fashionable.

The word is used by researchers about behaviour that is learned by one individual from another, and spreads through a community (like the way macaques in some communities all learn from watching when young that if they have a handful of grain that is mixed with soil and gravel, they can throw it into water and eat the grain which floats, while the gravel is heavier and sinks. Some other communities haven't met this meme so never do this)

Memes aren't just cartoon figures, they can be photos with captions or they can just be untrue stories dressed up as fact.

The 'untrue stories' are what I have always understood memes to be but the meaning seems to have changed over the past few years. Which might be a good thing as we can now revert to calling the untrue stories 'lies', which is what they are.

I've yet to really know what a meme is and why it is. Thought it was pronounced me me but apparently it's meeem. I know they're cartoon figures but can't call them that and again why.......?

Mummy you an get packs of ten eggs at Iceland and Aldi but not ones with 5 in.dont understand geofilter?

I am still trying to get grips with a mobile phone, so what chance do I have.

LSD Maggie, isn't that the drug the Beatles were on??
Oh this is a steeeeep learning curve for me....

Missdeke wot advert? Not seen that one

Thanks - I'd never have guessed. But what scares me most about C21 is that having worked for the last 20 years of the 20th century using {and programming) computers, I'm terrified to death of my smart phone - much smarter than me - which I still use to make phone calls, send the odd text and maybe take a photo or two. I wait till I get home to check my e-mails, surf the net and listen to my music. As for the language, have just started to use lol and maybe even rofl, but nothing more up-to-date!

missdeke no, I love it. I would have one ( a lot tidier than post it notes) but OH refuses to buy anything from Amazon. He has a pop at me every time something comes for me. I'm going to work on him

Slight tangent here on technology. Does anyone else think that 'thingy' on the advert that the bloke talks to and it talks back about his dog and the vet etc is a just a little bit weird?

As for pounds and ounces, feet and inches, I'm afraid they're still very much alive at Maggie's Place I have got rid of the LSD though (and make of that what you will ).

What's snapchat?

Come to that, why is a message you can overlay on a picture called a geofilter? I 'get' the 'geo' bit but what has a 'filter' got to do with it?

So why is it called a bitmoji (I did know about emojis) and how do you personalise it?

Oh well! Maybe I should know my place!

It is when you tell it daphnedill Thanks.

PS auto correct thinks your name should be landfill

Smartphones have GPS tracking, so unless you disable the GPS, every photo you take can be tracked. If you right click and look at the properties of a photo online it will often have the date/time it was taken and the exact location.

I don't know exactly how it works because I've never used it, but I guess what happens is that you can upload photos you've taken with a smartphone to Snapchat and click on something to include a geofilter (message overlaid on the photo) and now you can include bitmojis. Simple, huh!

Life was so simple once

I am going to go out tomorrow and just say this, to somebody "Snapchat now let's you add bitmoji to online geofilters."
They will either be eternally grateful that I have shared this gem of knowledge or they will cart me off in a strait jacket....
I'm taking bets..

Aha!! It's all become clear..........I think......??