You know you're middle aged when

[Cudzoziemiec]

...when you still think a radio station is something that broadcasts to air, rather than to Youtube and Soundcloud.

[T42]

...when you still think a radio station is something that broadcasts to air, rather than to Youtube and Soundcloud.

Huh?  Whence radio in that case?

[Kim]

...when you still think a radio station is something that broadcasts to air, rather than to Youtube and Soundcloud.

Huh?  Whence radio in that case?

WiFi, innit.

[Cudzoziemiec]

"Turn on the wireless, it's time for The Archers."

[Kim]

"Turn on the wireless, it's time for The Archers."

Obviously you need to allow it sufficient time to boot up...

[Cudzoziemiec]

"Turn on the wireless, it's time for The Archers."

Obviously you need to allow it sufficient time to boot up...

And find the spare PP9 battery.

[Cudzoziemiec]

...when you still think a radio station is something that broadcasts to air, rather than to Youtube and Soundcloud.

Huh?  Whence radio in that case?

Because they are doing what a radio station does: broadcasting music and/or words, but not via radio waves.

[Jaded]

You keep the house tidier than you used to because they might find it like this after they have broken in.

[T42]

...when you still think a radio station is something that broadcasts to air, rather than to Youtube and Soundcloud.

Huh?  Whence radio in that case?

Because they are doing what a radio station does: broadcasting music and/or words, but not via radio waves.

Well that's half-arsed, innit?

[Kim]

...when you still think a radio station is something that broadcasts to air, rather than to Youtube and Soundcloud.

Huh?  Whence radio in that case?

Because they are doing what a radio station does: broadcasting music and/or words, but not via radio waves.

Well that's half-arsed, innit?

Hardly a new phenomenon, though.  Hospital radio is usually closed circuit, and student radio stations were often distributed by induction loop when they couldn't get a low-power FM licence (I assume they just use internet streaming these days).  Also retailers have been pretending to have their own radio stations (which were in fact a long-playing tape) for yonks.  The idea of 'radio station' meaning 'a technology-agnostic thing that plays radio programmes on its own schedule' was well-understood, even before internet streaming and podcasts became a thing.

[Tim Hall]

In Thee Olden Days, United Biscuits had a closed circuit "radio" network, imaginatively,  called United Biscuits Network.  Many of the DJs came there from Proper Pirate Radio and then went on to ILR stations. (Roger Scott, Peter Young, Graham Dene ect ect)

[T42]

...when you still think a radio station is something that broadcasts to air, rather than to Youtube and Soundcloud.

Huh?  Whence radio in that case?

Because they are doing what a radio station does: broadcasting music and/or words, but not via radio waves.

Well that's half-arsed, innit?

Hardly a new phenomenon, though.  Hospital radio is usually closed circuit, and student radio stations were often distributed by induction loop when they couldn't get a low-power FM licence (I assume they just use internet streaming these days).  Also retailers have been pretending to have their own radio stations (which were in fact a long-playing tape) for yonks.  The idea of 'radio station' meaning 'a technology-agnostic thing that plays radio programmes on its own schedule' was well-understood, even before internet streaming and podcasts became a thing.

I surrender. 

That's nice, though: I'm very pleased to be merely middle-aged.

[Kim]

Is there a linguistic term for the effect where words lose their technical meanings as they become part of everyday vocabulary?  'Digital' is a prime example, but 'FM' probably qualifies.

The next one to fall victim to this seems to be 'WiFi', which is losing its IEEE 802.11 implication, to become a generic term for wireless internet access (no longer distinct from cellular connections), or possibly even internet connectivity in general (the perpetrators likely being unaware of wired networking).

[Cudzoziemiec]

Is there a linguistic term for the effect where words lose their technical meanings as they become part of everyday vocabulary?  'Digital' is a prime example, but 'FM' probably qualifies.

The next one to fall victim to this seems to be 'WiFi', which is losing its IEEE 802.11 implication, to become a generic term for wireless internet access (no longer distinct from cellular connections), or possibly even internet connectivity in general (the perpetrators likely being unaware of wired networking).

Semantic shift.

[Kim]

That's the badger.  Of course, it goes both ways.  eg. the way 'wireless' has come to mean IEEE 802.11 specifically rather than any kind of radio communications.

Contrast with 'cordless', which now means 'battery powered'.  cf. "cordless screwdriver"

[Andy W]

66 for you sir, from 6th April - 5th May (then monthly) it's tapers from age 66 and 1 month, to the full on actual 67 at 5th March 1961.
Current plan, of course it might change

for myself  66 and 10 months as a January 61 birthday

[Slave To The Viking]

Is there a linguistic term for the effect where words lose their technical meanings as they become part of everyday vocabulary?  'Digital' is a prime example, but 'FM' probably qualifies.

The next one to fall victim to this seems to be 'WiFi', which is losing its IEEE 802.11 implication, to become a generic term for wireless internet access (no longer distinct from cellular connections), or possibly even internet connectivity in general (the perpetrators likely being unaware of wired networking).

Is it? I've only ever encountered WiFi as meaning wireless connectivity to a router, specifically distinct from cellular data.

Granted, I'm a sample size of one, but I work in digital marketing with a bunch of twenty- and thirty-somethings, and I have both primary- and secondary-age kids, and I still don't recognise the use of WiFi as meaning anything other than WiFi.

[Jaded]

Nowadays most people I speak to think WiFi = Internet

I infer from that that it has gone the way of infer.

[Kim]

I've certainly come across people using 'WiFi' to mean internet generally, and given the branding of 802.11ax as "WiFi 6"^[1] it's understandable that people might consider it the successor to "5G".  I recall someone recently had a phone salesoik insit that 4G was the same thing as WiFi (which is why 5G is better) but that's the sort of thing you expect from salesoiks^[2].  I expect the teenagers will continue to understand the difference, if only on a who's-paying-for/censoring/throttling-what level.  Meanwhile there must be plenty of people like my MIL, whose mental model doesn't even extend to the difference between an SMS and a message sent over an internet connection, and are likely to use terms at random.


_{[1] 802.11ac gets retconned to 'WiFi 5' and 802.11n becomes 'WiFi 4' and so on...
[2] I had one tell me that computers were getting out of date in 1991, apparently because Super Nintendos^[3] were faster and better.
[3] A childhood in which Super Nintendos were new and exciting now qualifies you as middle-aged.  Terrifying thought.}

[Mr Larrington]

Even the bloody BBC, who ought to know better, are guilty of the “WiFi = Internet” dumbfuckery.  A year or three back Virgin had a big outage in SW Londonton which the Beeb reported as “leaving thousands of customers without WiFi”

[T42]

It's a bit like phones "running out of battery" when they've gone flat.

[TheLurker]

It's a bit like phones "running out of battery" when they've gone flat.

My new portable telephone is permanently flat, well, not very deep.  Sorry (not sorry).

[Cudzoziemiec]

...when you still think a radio station is something that broadcasts to air, rather than to Youtube and Soundcloud.

Huh?  Whence radio in that case?

Because they are doing what a radio station does: broadcasting music and/or words, but not via radio waves.

Well that's half-arsed, innit?

Hardly a new phenomenon, though.  Hospital radio is usually closed circuit, and student radio stations were often distributed by induction loop when they couldn't get a low-power FM licence (I assume they just use internet streaming these days).  Also retailers have been pretending to have their own radio stations (which were in fact a long-playing tape) for yonks.  The idea of 'radio station' meaning 'a technology-agnostic thing that plays radio programmes on its own schedule' was well-understood, even before internet streaming and podcasts became a thing.

I surrender. 

That's nice, though: I'm very pleased to be merely middle-aged.

As if on cue, the BBC:

This glimpse of the near future came with arrival of ITV’s new digital home, ITVX, last Thursday and also in the resounding words of the BBC’s director general, who the day before politely asked the nation’s audiences to “imagine a world that is internet-only, where broadcast TV and radio are being switched off and choice is infinite”. Tim Davie went on to declare: “A switch-off of broadcast will and should happen over time, and we should be active in planning for it.” And so, while the BBC claims to continue to be committed to live broadcasting, over the next two decades the closure of individual “linear” channels, and radio stations, is already accepted.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/dec/10/is-this-the-end-of-tv-broadcasters-prepare-for-online-only-switch

It's still a plan for the next 10 years or thereabouts, so not exactly imminent.

[quixoticgeek]

Is there a linguistic term for the effect where words lose their technical meanings as they become part of everyday vocabulary?  'Digital' is a prime example, but 'FM' probably qualifies.

The next one to fall victim to this seems to be 'WiFi', which is losing its IEEE 802.11 implication, to become a generic term for wireless internet access (no longer distinct from cellular connections), or possibly even internet connectivity in general (the perpetrators likely being unaware of wired networking).

I recently came across a gootube video of a youngen who had found the secret to a reliable wifi connection for gaming.

His secret?

An ethernet cable...

J

[Mr Larrington]

Reminds me of the young'un who, during the opening overs of teh Plague, expressed a yearning for “something like a podcast but constantly updated”.

“It's called 'radio'!” said some, though I expect there were those who referred to it as “wireless” just to confuse the poor bairn.