Call me old fashioned, but as much as I like computers and technology*, I am a little weary of the way things are changing. It is just all a little too fast for me. I am reminded of this weekly in my technology class when the professor and most of the class oohhs and awws over new technology and laughs at the thought that anyone would try to do anything with paper and pencil (if I told them that my dad runs his business without any computers, I'm sure they would not believe me).
Specifically, the following irks me: My professor reminded us that things we traditionally underline, like say book titles, should not be underlined on the web. Why? Because now when people see something underlined, they assume it is a link. They will try to click on it, and when it does not work they will think the web designer is an idiot. Book titles are supposed to be underlined, people! He says, instead, to italicize them or put them in quotes. Call me crazy, but I think the person who can't use context clues to figure out that the underlined portion of text is a book title and accept that it is not a link is the idiot.
Don't get me wrong. I'm a fan of technology: I can't imagine life without TiVO, I blog, I *heart* my iPod. It's just that the blind acceptance of (computer) technology as being better than everything else doesn't sit well with me.
*for the purposes of this blog, technology means electronics/computers/etc. I realize that technology encompases many different tools, but I don't have another word to use that gets my point across. And also, in keeping with my rant, I don't think most Tech-lovers even realize that they don't own the word technology.
1 comment:
In teh last line of that post, you mispelled teh word "pwn." You should know that when blogging or writing in a technological context, "own" is no longer an accepted spelling. 707! R0tf7.
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