Meta lexicon - understanding tech terminology
As our world becomes increasingly digital, you may have noticed a lot of new terms and acronyms becoming common parlance. It can be hard for parents to explain these terms without understanding them themselves.
So what are the must-know terms of the moment? Here we have collected our top-ten of tech terminology:
1.NFT
An NFT is a non-fungible token. What this means is that it is a unique, irreplaceable piece of data.
Lots of things can be made into NFTs, but they are most commonly GIFs or images. The value of the NFT lies in that unique, identifying piece of data rather than the image itself, which can easily be screenshotted or downloaded.
2. Mod
A video game ‘mod’, short for modification, is an alteration of one or more aspects of a game, traditionally coded by players themselves.
Mods don’t necessarily change the basic structure of the game. They tend to make more aesthetic or thematic changes, such as changing the setting of a game or giving characters different clothing or weapons.
3. Doxxing
Doxxing is the publishing of someone's personal or private information online – such as their address, phone number or email address – without their permission.
Doxxing is an invasion of privacy and can put individuals in real danger. Publishing someone’s personal information with malicious intent is a criminal offence. Remind your child that it is never safe to share this kind of information about either themselves or another person online.
4. AMA
‘AMA’ is an abbreviation for ‘ask me anything’. It is used commonly as a part of Instagram Stories and on chat sites such as Kik and Yubo as part of users’ statuses. There is also an entire Reddit page dedicated to it: r/AMA.
While ‘ask me anything’ can be a fun way to start conversations and get to know people online, make sure your child is aware of the issues that could be brought up. Let them know that they don’t have to answer any questions that make them feel uncomfortable, and again to never share personal information about themselves.
5. Bot
A bot is a computer program designed to mimic human activity online. They have many different uses, from acting as customer service representatives on commercial sites to filling in for an in-game character.
There are also ‘malicious bots’ that will spam sites either with advertising links, viruses or by posting offensive comments to chat forums. The purpose of these bots is usually to extract money or drive up engagement on certain sites.
6. Finsta
A ‘finsta’ is a ‘fake’ Instagram account. Many young people can feel a lot of pressure to use Instagram to present a very polished version of themselves to the world. Finstas take some of the pressure off this, as they are typically only viewed by close friends and allow young people to talk more openly about their issues.
Having this more authentic and personal finsta account can be very freeing. But remind your child that even though the account is more private, there are still some things that you shouldn’t post online.
7. Deepfake
A ‘deepfake’ is a piece of media in which the subject is replaced by an artificially produced likeness. For example, it could seem to be a picture of a celebrity, but the image of the celebrity is created by an artificial intelligence program.
Deepfakes have some very negative and harmful uses. These include creating false political narratives, blackmail, fraud and making pornography using the faces of female actresses without their consent or even awareness.
In the UK, creating deepfakes is not illegal, but you can be prosecuted for harassment if the deepfake has a malicious or invasive intent.
8. Metaverse
The metaverse is a term for a combination of virtual reality with other technologies that will allow us to have a deeper experience of the online world. The metaverse is a 3D environment in which we can interact, rather than seeing the internet simply on a screen.
The metaverse is more of an aspiration than a reality. But companies such as Meta, Microsoft and Roblox are all investing money into virtual technologies with the hope of creating these spheres in the future.
9. TL;DR
An abbreviation of ‘too long: didn’t read’, TL;DR is used to indicate when something is so long or overly wordy that it isn’t worth reading or to point readers to a summary of the post or article.
In some cases, TL;DR is used to be dismissive towards a piece of content. It is often used on Reddit forums, in response to Twitter threads or Instagram posts.
10. Incel
‘Incel’ is short for ‘involuntary celibate’. Incels are typically young men who feel unable to find a romantic (usually female) partner and are resentful of all women because of this.
Incel culture is typically discussed on online chat forums, such as Reddit and 4chan. Their culture has often been linked to far-right ideology, and in some instances has resulted in violence and even murder against women.