You Can Spot A Tech Newbie (Or Old Person) When…

By: Ann-Marie | Category: Social Media Debauchery, Web Nerdery

They add “the” in front of a new technology. For example:

“Are you on the Facebook yet?”

“I saw you on the Twitter.”

An alternative is when different technology names get mashed together:

“I signed up for MyFacePage yesterday.”

It’s sweet, really. But it’s just Facebook. Twitter. MySpace. LinkedIn. No “the” necessary.

February 13, 2009 | Comments (10)

10 Responses to “You Can Spot A Tech Newbie (Or Old Person) When…”

  1. Mike Troiano wrote on February 13th, 2009 at 12:41 pm:

    I’ve also noted the tendency to make all restaurant names plural possessive.

    “How about Pizzeria Uno’s”
    “I have the taste in my mouth for Paparazzi’s”
    “Let’s go to Outback’s”

    Outback, Dad. OUTBACK.

  2. Ann-Marie wrote on February 13th, 2009 at 12:45 pm:

    Love it Mike! I’m cracking up over here…

  3. Elizabeth Jones wrote on February 13th, 2009 at 1:49 pm:

    And then there is the combination, where they use both “the” and “plural form” as in the famous “I hear there are rumors on the Internets” from your friend GWB.

  4. Private wrote on February 13th, 2009 at 7:54 pm:

    I disagree – if they call it Thefacebook, they are actually being retro-cool. :)

  5. Patrick wrote on February 14th, 2009 at 2:04 pm:

    I’m a techie, but I most be old. I was just calling Facebook, “Myface” the other day! :)

  6. Addicted to Facebook? » Sean Finnegan wrote on February 15th, 2009 at 11:41 pm:

    [...] You Can Spot A Tech Newbie (Or Old Person) When… (annmariemurphy.com) Share and Enjoy: [...]

  7. Aren’t social networks suppose to expand? « WhysUp wrote on February 16th, 2009 at 4:35 pm:

    [...] You Can Spot A Tech Newbie (Or Old Person) When… (annmariemurphy.com) [...]

  8. George wrote on February 16th, 2009 at 5:16 pm:

    After the determiner, there is always that unnecessary definition. “I looked it up on the Yahoo search engine.”

    Whew. For a minute there, I thought it was the Yahoo dictionary. Thank you clarifying it was a search engine.

    (Although when they say the Yahoo web site, I must admit to some cringing…)

  9. Ann-Marie wrote on February 17th, 2009 at 10:17 am:

    What about a combination of all of the above?!

    “First, I saw it on the Myface. Then it moved quickly to the Internets and next thing I knew, it was all over the Yahoo’s search engine!”

  10. Gina Alfani wrote on February 18th, 2009 at 1:25 pm:

    I signed up for MyTwitterSpaceFacePage . . . love this post and still laughing :-)

Leave a Reply