Old Fashioned Words

People mock me for referring to my athletic footwear as “sneakers.” Apparently that is an old fashioned term. I am told the correct term is “tennis shoes” even if the athletic shoes in question are not designed for use on a tennis court. This seems wrong. If my athletic shoes allow me to “sneak” someplace without making noise, and are unsuitable for playing tennis, I say they should be called sneakers. 

I was reminded of this the other day at the movies. The theater asks customers to silence their “cell phones.” This already seems old fashioned to me. I only own one phone. It’s in my left front pocket all the time. It’s my home phone, my work phone, and my cell phone. All of those terms will be old fashioned in your lifetime. Your kids will simply have a “phone.”

Do you remember when computers were “multimedia”? That word went away as soon as every computer could handle sound and video. The descriptor “high definition” will evaporate in about ten years too. And you won’t have to talk about “downloading” music because that’ll be the only way to get it.

Recently a friend joked about going to the library to help with his son’s school project. He said it felt like going back in time, to pre-Internet days. I wonder if libraries have an expiration date on them. I’m guessing yes.

I also wonder when the “e-“ will disappear from e-mail. I’m trying to remember the last time I wrote the kind of letter that requires a stamp. I’m guessing it was about seven years ago. I don’t even check my physical mailbox daily. I only check it when I think it might be too full for the mailman to stuff more crap in there.

Do you have any soon-to-be-old-fashioned words to add?

Comments

[Kate Drummey]

As long as there are college kids, there will still be mail (as in snail mail). Mail hardly ever is in my mailbox at school, but I check it at LEAST once a day. Getting a package slip in your mailbox is quite possibly one of the greatest things to happen to a college kid. Ask any of them.

[Andy]

Books are never going away. They work too well for that.
Libraries are free books for intelligent, articulate people. They know how to argue for their freebies. Therefore libraries are not going to go away. If you were implying that physical recordings of music will disappear from sale within 10 years too, then I'll bet money against that.

[Emily]

I hope the "e" disappears soon. I took an e-business class and it was like reading a history of the past 10 years, kind of surreal. There were way too many "e"s, "etailers sell e-products in e-stores"

[Catherine]

One can hope...
AIDS
Cancer

Or...
"Smoking Section"/"Smoking or Non?"
Glass Ceiling

[SHADOW MAN]

"I was reminded of this the other day at the movies. The theater asks customers to silence their “cell phones.” This already seems old fashioned to me. I only own one phone. It’s in my left front pocket all the time. It’s my home phone, my work phone, and my cell phone. All of those terms will be old fashioned in your lifetime. Your kids will simply have a “phone.”"

If they use the singular "phone" wouldn't that mean only one person would have to silence his phone while every one else can use theirs ? Collective noun i think .. whatever

A more useful notice in Malaysia would be turn of your cameras =)

[Patrick]

Scott, I guess you mentioned another word in your very example about phones: "cinema". Why would someone want to go through the hassle of scrambling with hundreds of others into a room simply to view a movie, when you can do the same thing and with only the people you really care about in the convenience of your own home...

Oh, and another one: "movie rental". same as with music, I guess.

[Doug]

Newspaper Comic Strip

[Tim]

This 'only downloading music' got me thinking. Assume that you pretty much get it for free; there's no record labels, they switch to running the solar power stations instead. So artists don't really get any revenue from downloads, they do it for the love of it, so they have a paid job in order to eat and create music for free cos they're good at it. This used to be the model for the cricket and athletics 'businesses' here in the UK. What's the problem? The RIAA et al and the artists just need to adapt - jeez, why is that so hard?

[Amanda]

I guess "keds" is right out. And I'm not that old.

[Rich]

Comic strip.

[cheshrcat]

I'm noticing the verb "to be" becoming obsolete. More and more I hear stuff like, "this needs fixed." Makes me cringe.

[Michael Lambert]

A civilization without libraries is a civilization in decline... (nietzsche)

Miguel Lamberto

[Michael Lambert]

A civilization without libraries is a civilization in decline... (nietzsche)

No just kidding, that was me...

Michael Lambert

[SpongeJim]

[gone the way of the Model T]

Somehow this cliche'd phrase is still in use. Therefore I believe everything you have said will not only remain in use, but go the way of Dilbert and remain popular despite their decreasing applicability.

[Better Than You]

>>"I am sixteen and a technophobe. I wear sneakers every day. I write physical letters to friends who live far away because I don't like e-mail. I don't like talking on the phone because I can't see the other person. I plan on having my own library when I grow up. I don't do well with change. I would do better in the nineties, I am not going to do well in the future I think."<<

Have you started your manifesto yet?

[millbert]

Double sawbuck = yuppie coupon

Also:

Pentium
analog
megabyte
CRT
serial (com1, com2)

[Lex]

Heck, here in the Philippines we still call sneakers, running shoes, gym trainers, etc as "rubber shoes." I guess the aim to segregate shoes into various types (accdg to utility/appearance etc) is still in the process of catching up in a country that's both westernized and backward at the same time.

[Jarrett Kaufman]

The comment on the outdated nature of the term "cell phone" struck me for several reasons:

1. From a purely technical standpoint, they're no longer "cell" phones. The technology used for them is no longer referred to in this way. They are typically "wireless" (not to be confused with "cordless" since that's apparently completely different) or "mobile" phones now.

2. If you're at a movie theater, what other sort of phone would you have with you? Are they afraid that their audience is dense enough as to leave the theater and drive all the way home to puzzle out how to turn off the ringer on their home phone? The only phone you're going to have with you is a so-called "cell" phone, therefore simply calling it a phone is good enough. Unless, of course, it's a Helio, in which case you have good cause for boycotting that particular establishment for insulting your wireless provider.

3. And finally, yes, my wireless phone is more and more becoming my only phone. My land-line (even that's in some ways an outdated term, since it's not actually connected to a line, but to my cable company's broadband/VoIP modem which is connected by coaxial cable) is rarely used anymore, and probably soon to be canceled.

[dk]

I would have to agree that the sneakers vs tennis shoes is probably regional, but it seems like every person has said that they use sneakers. Out where I live, if you said sneakers you would probably sound like a faggot. Although I think just "shoes" is used more than "tennis shoes." Also, though it does seem strange to describe all athletic shoes by the type for one specific sport, it makes almost less sense to call them sneakers, because they are not used to sneak around in, generally.

[Cap'n Bob]

If there's a god, the horrible idiom "I'm like" will revert back to the correct "I said."

[No one]

[Maybe in the future you'll see "video game" turn into just "game"]

I hope not. It would mean that Candyland, Chess, Hopscotch and all the rest have gone the way of the Model T.

[Becky]

I like how we've gone from "do you have e-mail?" to "what's your e-mail address?"

As for digitizing old books... that's what I do for a living. Check out www.archive.org

And here is my boss: http://www.thestar.com/News/article/203437 ^_^

[Dotti]

Record Store!!! LP's!!!

My 16 year old daughter was wanting a particular cd and boy did I show my age! I told her that the next time we were at the mall that we would stop by the "record store!" She looked at me funny and said "Mom, what is a record store and when did it come to the mall??"

Just yesterday, my fiance was cleaning out a closest and came across a stack of LP's (I called them albums way back when). I was delighted when I saw a John Mellencamp LP!! My daughter instantly asked: "What are those big things?"

Geez - I'm getting old!

[Dotti]

Record Store!!! LP's!!!

My 16 year old daughter was wanting a particular cd and boy did I show my age! I told her that the next time we were at the mall that we would stop by the "record store!" She looked at me funny and said "Mom, what is a record store and when did it come to the mall??"

Just yesterday, my fiance was cleaning out a closest and came across a stack of LP's (I called them albums way back when). I was delighted when I saw a John Mellencamp LP!! My daughter instantly asked: "What are those big things?"

Geez - I'm getting old!

[JST]

"The libraries in my town and surrounding counties definitely had an expiration date. In Oregon (my state) all the libraries in Jackson and Josephine counties shut down as of April."

Yeah, I read about that. That was horrible. But it's worth pointing out that the closures came more from funding problems than the service being seen as obsolete. I'm a librarian (and obviously see the value of libraries), but it's clearly not as essential a service as say the fire department or the police.

"Makes me wonder if they are just gonna put all books on computer now instead of wasting so much paper printing them. I see that coming in the near future."
-Mace

Nah. Ebook readers have been around for years and have never really taken off, mostly because the current design of a book doesn't really need much improvement. I could seem ebook readers having academic applications (so students don't have to carry around multiple heavy textbooks, plus being able to keyword search would be helpful), but casual readers don't really seem to need or want them.
As for older books, they won't be digitized for a long time, if ever, for several reasons, including copyright, time, and cost. I feel like most of us are still pretty impressed with what technology has made possible, but this is one area in which my library patrons often expect more than current technology can deliver - many are surprised to learn that, for example, the article from 1990 they need isn't digitized and available online. But even when you do hold the copyright, digitizing old material is incredibly costly and time consuming, so there has to be a real financial incentive for it to happen.