The term "ping" should be confined to the Ed Reardon Show, wherein its use is universally excellent.
Or submarine movies.
The ICMP 'ping' command takes its name from the noise (and function) of active sonar. That's perfectly reasonable, as it's one of the less obscure Unix command names, being based on a evocative metaphor rather than a witty pun.
By extension, it became common for Old Internet People
[1] to use the term for a layer-8
[2] operation of sending someone a message (by whatever protocol was convenient, including shouting) to see if they were available. Post Internet People
[1] picked up this usage, but missed the underlying sense of seeing if someone was there
[3], instead using it to refer to any kind of messaging, including, it seems, those generated automatically. Presumably because notifications sometimes make a "Ping!" sound. Which is fair enough, really, but it's still the sort of thing you'd expect from philistines who don't even know what 'broadband' means.
'Pingfuckit' is an onomatopoeia.
'Pingdemic', on the other hand, isn't a thing.
[1] ©2019 Gretchen McCulloch
[2] In the OSI sense.
[3] Of course they're there, their phone's in their pocket.
