Need to know: Tech words

With ever-evolving technology, it can be hard to keep up with the latest vocabulary used to describe it. This helpful article points out 25 tech words you need to know. The most interesting is probably mesofact – a fact that slowly evolves over time.

This challenges our conceptions of what a fact is – it is conventionally defined as “something that actually exists; reality, truth” and we probably think of facts as being hard, unchanging information. A mesofact however is something that exists, but is changing.

Mesofact
A mesofact is a fact that is slowly evolving over time. For example, the term “national healthcare” might have one meaning at first, but slowly evolves to become more concrete, as the actual laws emerge. Original use: on Wikipedia, users often add more detail to an entry as the original meaning and facts evolve.

Here are some other words that caught my eye:

Thumbo
Posted as a new slang term on Wordspy.com, a thumbo is a mistake made when you are typing with your thumbs — on a BlackBerry or other smartphone.

Vook
Books are so 2008. This year, a new concept called a vook is emerging — a book that includes video snippets. The Apple iPad will help make vooks a reality as more of us use slim and light Internet tablets to read and browse the Web.

Dittoism
According to Doubletongued, a dittoism is defined as a penchant for Internet users to agree on the same topic only because that’s the established norm. For example, when most reviewers ranked the new Apple iPad as revolutionary, a dittoism is that everyone agrees, even without trying one.