The pace of change might be lightning-like, but it leaves a breadcrumb trail to the past.
Recently, my UniSC team and I were faced with having to name an overhauled journalism course that included reporting and editing for TV news, but also audio-visual news for socials and online.
But video no longer exists and we don’t use film anymore. Still, those words persist. In fact, while time and terminology move at the speed of bytes, it is remarkable how many old words linger.
Perhaps it is unsurprising, given we are cocooned in the digital age, but many of these outdated terms come from media – whether that be news or entertainment.
Fresh information, news or even gossip is still said by some to be ‘hot off the presses’. We still talk about taping something instead of recording, even though there is no physical tape involved anymore. Visual recordings are referred to as footage, which once referred to the number of feet of film used but now means how many digital minutes.
Rewinding, as a verb in general, is also dead. Without reels of tape, there is nothing to wind back: we just go back.
Digital natives – the generation that has not known anything other than devices and multimedia technology – must wonder what weird world went before them.
There is more: when a person talks repeatedly about something, we might say they ‘sound like a broken record’. But those black discs now exist only in hipster circles and museums.
Another record reference persists in the occasional mention of a possible alternative in a debate as ‘on the flipside’.
Typing is only correct when your digits are on a keyboard, not on a mobile device, when it is texting.
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There are many other terms that hang on.
Freelancing came from the time of knights, who were mercenaries, and their lances could serve anyone.
Now, it is generally used to refer to farming out an artsy or wordy skill.
Making lots of stops on the way to somewhere is to take the milk run. We still talk about winding down our car windows, but cranks are not part of a vehicle’s infrastructure.
These phrases will no doubt pass into history soon: such is the way and wonder of words.
Dr Jane Stephens is a UniSC journalism lecturer, media commentator and writer. The views expressed are her own.
