digerati

I’m always fascinated by the newly coined word. This one’s no mystery, but it sure is a sign of the times.

Definition of digerati:
“The ‘digital elite.’ People who are extremely knowledgeable about computers. It often refers to the movers and shakers in the industry. Digerati is the high-tech equivalent of ‘literati,’ which refers to scholars and intellectuals, or ‘glitterati,’ the rich and famous. Digerati, technorati and geekerati are synonymous. See jitterati: A variation of digerati that refers to stressed-out personnel in the fast-paced, high-tech industry.” (answers.com)

Where I ran across it:
3/9/08 NYT online article “Text Generation Gap: U R 2 Old (JK)” by Laura M. Holson.

“…It is likely that in just a few years, younger members of the digerati will consider cell phones like those the Blantons are using to be relics…”

My two cents:
It’s every generation’s job to develop new stuff, including lingo. My parents never even conceived of the word, digerati. I don’t know which generation thought of pig-latin but I can remember thinking as a kid how swell it was keeping our parents out of the loop. Wish I’d known then that they spoke it too.

Fast forward to the newest linguistic phenomenon: text message-ese. It's a curious study in semiotics that requires a high-speed kind of shorthand (delivered often via the thumbs), dispenses with proper punctuation, and deals largely in esoteric abbreviations, acronyms, initials and symbols. This time many parents (and aging boomers in general) don’t speak the language. They are having a hard time deciphering all the abbreviated slang, and in fact, simply aren’t keeping up. And some folks actually choose not to get with the program. Out of the loop by choice. Imagine. WDT? (Who does that?). Repeat after me: I am NOT my ______ (please fill in the blank: cell phone, text message, IM, SMS, Blackberry, PDA, blog, RSS feed, chat room, email, PC, Mac G5, online game, other.)

But for those parents who are trying valiantly to keep up with their kids, and for others simply trying to keep up, the process can be tricky. De-coding via the latest online lingo translator is helpful for a time, but the youthful digerati are quick to change things up at a dizzying pace. Darn those kids. Today’s lexicon might be completely different tomorrow. And eventually even its delivery system is likely to change. In the coming years, like Laura Holson’s NYT article suggests, cell phones could be altogether obsolete.

So what will be the next great way of KPC (keeping parents clueless)? Telepathy? What?

Honestly, GOK.