The Virus Changed the Way We Internet (nytimes.com) 51
A New York Times analysis of internet usage in the United States from SimilarWeb and Apptopia, two online data providers, reveals that our behaviors shifted, sometimes starkly, as the virus spread and pushed us to our devices for work, play and connecting. From the report: With nearly all public gatherings called off, Americans are seeking out entertainment on streaming services like Netflix and YouTube, and looking to connect with one another on social media outlets like Facebook. In the past few years, users of these services were increasingly moving to their smartphones, creating an industrywide focus on mobile. Now that we are spending our days at home, with computers close at hand, Americans appear to be remembering how unpleasant it can be to squint at those little phone screens.
Facebook, Netflix and YouTube have all seen user numbers on their phone apps stagnate or fall off as their websites have grown, the data from SimilarWeb and Apptopia indicates. While traditional social media sites have been growing, it seems that we want to do more than just connect through messaging and text -- we want to see one another. This has given a big boost to apps that used to linger in relative obscurity, like Google's video chatting application, Duo, and Houseparty, which allows groups of friends to join a single video chat and play games together.
Facebook, Netflix and YouTube have all seen user numbers on their phone apps stagnate or fall off as their websites have grown, the data from SimilarWeb and Apptopia indicates. While traditional social media sites have been growing, it seems that we want to do more than just connect through messaging and text -- we want to see one another. This has given a big boost to apps that used to linger in relative obscurity, like Google's video chatting application, Duo, and Houseparty, which allows groups of friends to join a single video chat and play games together.
Stop verbing nouns (Score:4, Insightful)
Verbing nouns weirds the language.
Re:Stop verbing nouns (Score:5, Funny)
That's actually your mental problem. (Score:3, Interesting)
If this makes your blood boil, try to imagine how people from a few centuries ago would feel about the way YOU write and talk. :)
I mean ... seriously? ... :)
I dislike it too, but
If that makes you *angry*, then you should call the textbook company, and have them make you the prime example of a "trigger".
Also, nearly always, the angrier sombody gets, the less he actually knows why or ever thought about it. (Don't think I didn't do that aswell. I'm not better. I wasn't, anyway.)
I think allowing more flexible u
like, valley girls, like (Score:1)
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Right, kick ass.
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Aren't you missing the point? He was making a joke by using the noun "knife" as a verb, which has been standard practice for centuries.
Yellyannism (Score:2)
If you think your real issue is "verbing nouns" (an evolutionary workhorse that made the English language what it is today) you are:
* poorly educated about the linguistic history of the English language;
* lacking introspective insight;
* inarticulate in expressing your true rage trigger.
What you're actually objecting to—I strongly suspect
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I don't really understand the logic here, knifing is a verb too, so you're just verbing the poor noun twice.
Re:Stop verbing nouns (Score:4, Insightful)
This is what is called a "denominal verb" and, in fact, English has a variety of mechanisms for doing this. Not to belabor the point, many everyday English verbs are denominal.
Re: (Score:1, Offtopic)
Perhaps the original poster should've said "stop inventing new meanings for existing words."
Yes, English is a living language, and yes, sometimes "verbing a noun" is appropriate (e.g. the verb "dust", meaning "remove the dust from [furniture, etc.]") but we already have a perfectly good way to say "The virus changed the way we use the internet."
Lopping off two words from that sentence is not a good reason to try to add a "verb definition" to the word Internet.
The fact that the first reply in this thread was
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I hung up my sword and shield as defender of language purity decades ago. "Impact" as a pretentious synonym for "affect" was my last battle.
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So, no longer moving the needle...
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I always wonder what most people picture when they hear the phrase "push the envelope". Probably not a test pilot taking a stroll around Coffin Corner.
I guess "needle" is just as dead a vehicle for metaphor now. To me it still evokes those old Art Deco Bakelite cased Simpson VOMs. Surprisingly you can still buy them new, made in the same factory in Wisconsin.
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I guess "needle" is just as dead a vehicle for metaphor now. To me it still evokes those old Art Deco Bakelite cased Simpson VOMs. Surprisingly you can still buy them new, made in the same factory in Wisconsin.
Whoa, you're not kiddin'. I have a perfectly good Radio Shack digital vom from like 2000 or so, but I'm very tempted to pick up a Simpson. Doesn't look like Bakelite and it doesn't have the old-style scales, but who cares... they're made *HERE* and are still analog.
I miss my old Micronta analog I had since the 80's. Dunno how, but I lost it, thus prompting my getting the digital one.
How would you feel with a 5-kt coffin corner? ;o) Some folks I supported for a while flew something with a 5 knot coffin
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I'd buy a vintage Simpson VOM off ebay. It'd be easy enough to refurbish, it's just a resistor network inside, then of course you'd have to calibrate it.
That wouldn't be too bad either. They're only rated to +/- 3% of full scale, you could do an acceptable job with a cheap digital meter. The main virtue of the thing isn't accuracy; it's that it's a pleasure to use.
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I'd buy a vintage Simpson VOM off ebay. It'd be easy enough to refurbish, it's just a resistor network inside, then of course you'd have to calibrate it.
Agreed. But lately, in the past 10 or so years, if I have a choice of Made in China, Old Made in USA or New Made in USA, I'll pick the New Made in USA.
It's about supporting *our* manufacturers. The last 20 years have destroyed our manufacturing base. Can't even get a goddamn Made in USA towel in stores anymore. You can, in amazon. I tack on "Made in USA" with quotes on any product search I do.
Now we're paying for it. That whole mess with 3M making surgical masks in China is sickening to me.
Buying a new
Nationalism failed 50 years ago too (Score:1)
It's about supporting *our* manufacturers. The last 20 years have destroyed our manufacturing base...
Don't remember the 70s huh. That attitude failed then too. There's no reason to believe it'll work now. Repeating history and expecting a different outcome is not how we as a society should be moving forward. There are over 7 billion people that are not in your country, that have far more money to spend globally, and you don't hear them saying things like "we only buy from mfgrs in OUR country."
Hello, hipster! :) (Score:2)
Did you know that analog is vaastly inferior audio quality? :)
What you call "warm", is 50% loss of higher frequencies and 50% pure imagination.
Add a lowpass to a digital system, and you cannot tell them apart. ^^
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I used to be a hipster before it was cool.
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I always wonder what most people picture when they hear the phrase "push the envelope". Probably not a test pilot taking a stroll around Coffin Corner.
I'm guessing anyone who's read "The Right Stuff".
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Moving the goalposts? Coloring outside the lines? Overclocking our language?
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I always wonder what most people picture when they hear the phrase "push the envelope"
An awful trombone.
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But not for much longer if you let these people strangle it to death.
I enjoy Americans demonstrating that they are not really literate as much as the next person, but there is a place and a time for it. (Round the back of the shed, after a few spliffs, in case you were wondering).
Re:Stop verbing nouns (Score:5, Insightful)
And yet, in the past, there were people who protested the same thing. "Verily, we have already a method for proclaiming that we are removing dust without resorting to the ridiculous colloquialsim of 'dust', what say you?"
When we say that English is a living language, that means it is constantly changing; it was changing in the past, it is changing today, and it will change in the future. Putting one's foot down and saying "Today is the day when English shall stop changing!" doesn't work, and it hasn't worked in the past either.
There is not such thing as language purity, except in the minds of those who appoint themselves as defenders of it. Even our dictionaries that we use as the official "authority" on what is proper were often highly criticized for using words not in common use by the upper classes (because it's often the upper classes who get to decide what is correct or not). On the other hand, do not forget that it was the upper classes who twisted Anglo Saxon by including Norman words giving rise to English. Begone, I bite my thumb at thee!
Functionality (Score:3, Informative)
I've heard a good test to see if a noun can be "verbed" is to see if it makes any sense in other common contexts:
Let's internet.
I internetted last night for a couple hours.
Can you internet me that?
Is it clear what anyone would mean if using it in most other contexts? I would argue no.
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Unilingual English speakers, your ignorance is showing. Like social customs, everyone thinks their own way is "normal".
European languages are cluttered with functionless noun genders. Chinese (I've been told) relies completely on word order where English requires pronomial cases and punctuation. The appropriate pronoun will vary based on the social class of the referent in Japanese. One of the first things I learned in my German class was the difference between "Du" and "Sie"
And languages do change. You don
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Chinese is actually more flexible in word order than German even though German verbs have suffixes while Chinese verbs are sometimes nouns. Despite intuition, from what I know, it's not guaranteed that a language with more word-class and/or noun-case markers will have a looser word order. For example, in english, if I say, eats kid an apple, it's pretty clear what I mean.
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Zoom in (Score:2)
I zoomed into your sentence, but I did not understand it, so I'll skype it for now.
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Calvin called this 25 years ago!
https://www.gocomics.com/calvi... [gocomics.com]
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Internetting weirds the world.
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English is a flexible language. It is perfectly acceptable to verb a noun, to casually split an infinitive, or utilize an Oxford comma.
Duh, The Obvious is Obvious (Score:4, Informative)
Big Screen beats little screen. Always has, always will.
But little screen is so portable!
I don't care. It's still dreck compared to something measured in feet instead of inches.
Re:Duh, The Obvious is Obvious (Score:4, Interesting)
Another explanation is that wireless access from your home is not nearly as good as wired access. In my case there is a hill between the cell tower and my house. I only get a crummy 3G signal and no 4G, but wired Internet works great. I have the phones set to use the home Internet because the cell signal is unusable. Of course usage has switched to the larger screens simply because multiple people can simultaneously view them.
Wireless signal good but congested (Score:1)
Wired internet may be more congested than usual but other than minor dropouts in video conferences and live-streamed videos I'm not seeing it.
On the other hand my cell provider is giving me a strong signal but it's been woefully under-capacity for a long time before the pandemic hit. 5-out-of-5 bars means little if you are getting multi-second complete dropouts every few minutes and high packet losses in between.
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It is obvious, but it wasn't the previous trend.
Software written lately has been designed for small screens. Because more people wanted, to use their small devices because they were more portable, and always on them. Unlike a bulky laptop that will feel heavy after a few blocks, or a desktop where you need to go to a room to use. Small screen is more convenient for people who are on the go.
Bigger screens are indeed better, for nearly any task. However, because people wanted portability a lot of the softw
What about something measured in light years then? (Score:2)
I like feet (duh), but even I would not use that as an argument. ^^
Anecdotally.... (Score:3, Interesting)
... it's true too (as if we need proof):
I repair computers for a living. Notwithstanding the 80-95% dropoff in work (today's the first day this week with work), 3 of my 4 tickets are to repair laptop cameras. I usually repair a laptop camera maybe once every six months....
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I can add my anecdotes. I'm in the market for a webcam because I'm doing more with family and friends online. Also, over the past few weeks I've seen more videos relating to the technical aspects of streaming and recording.
How to Record Piano with Phone or Other Microphones https://youtu.be/lPQD1C2_pRs [youtu.be]
Exploring the technical side of streaming on Ep.#86 of #ThePylonShow https://youtu.be/0erKqzH34cg [youtu.be]
Videoconferencing (Score:2)
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Well, audio conferences with presentations are big, and have been very common. But I have not been doiing any video conferencing lately, except one day when we just wanted to do non-work chatting. We did video conferencing 20 years ago, and it served little purpose. What good does it do to see a fuzzy image of the other conference room? And today the picture qualities are not much better.
To be honest, the way the network is used is little different to me today than it felt a month ago. I get on a voice
It Clearly Also Changed The Way ... (Score:2, Funny)
You Idiot.
What does the president do? (Score:1)
Seems like he has zero power, zero control over any governmental organization. He hires the wrong fools, then fires them. Has zero judgement ability on anything. Why was he relying on the WHO in the first place? His idiots had no clue what's happening in Wuhan?
What does a president do other than bitch? He listens to idiots, then blames them for THEIR lack of judgement rather than his own. Since when was that an acceptible thing? Why was he relying on the WHO and China in the first place?
What does a presiden
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You seem to forget that his primary function is to make a fool of himself on Twitter.
The virus changed the way we internet (Score:4, Funny)
And the internet changed the way we porn.
As JBMcB said in the first post of this thread: stop verbing nouns!
compliance behavior modification (Score:1)