Vocabulary

The digital world has its own terminology. Apart from knowing dynamics connected to digital identity, footprints and information bubbles, it is important to know the web jargon. Have a look at the list of words below: how many of these didn’t you know?

  • ANONYMOUS: having a hidden identity.
  • APP: short for “application,” a computer program that performs a specific set of functions.  
  • BIAS: an attitude or prejudice that favours a way of feeling or acting over another.
  • BOT: short for “robot,” a program, or sequence of computer code, that runs on the Internet; bots can be created to accomplish a specific task more quickly than a human.  
  • CLICKBAIT: sensationalist headline or link to an article, blog post, or other Internet content that exists for the purpose of attracting attention, or “drawing clicks.” Once a user clicks on the headline or image, the website is often mostly ads.
  • COOKIE: a small file that some websites attach to a user’s hard drive while the user is browsing that site; they can be used to track user preferences, speed loading times, and for advertising.  
  • CYBERBULLYING: used to describe online harassment, which can be in the form of flames, comments made in chat rooms, the sending of an offensive or cruel e-mail, or even harassing others by posting on blogs, Web pages or social networking sites.
  • DIGITAL ETIQUETTE: the conventions of being a responsible online citizen.
  • DM: direct message, on Twitter or other social media platforms. DMs allow a user to directly contact another user, without the messages being seen in a public forum.
  • EMOTICON: symbol used in text communications to convey an emotion within an electronic message.
  • FAKE NEWS: false information published as being authentic.
  • FLAMING (on the Internet): starting arguments on message boards.
  • FOLLOWERS: people who have subscribed to an account’s updates on social media.
  • HANDLE: name a person goes by on social media.
  • HIT: retrieval of any item, like a page or a graphic, from a Web server.
  • ISP (Internet Service Provider): the company that gives you access to the Internet for a fee.
  • LIKES: positive reaction to a post on social media; posts with more “likes” are more likely to show up in users’ newsfeeds.
  • MALWARE: derived from the term “malicious software;” refers to any program designed to infiltrate or damage a computer or network.
  • META-SEARCH ENGINE: a search engine that sends user requests to several other search engines, and then combines the different results into a single display.
  • PERMALINK: unique web address for a single blog posting.
  • PHISHING: sending email that attempts to scam the user into giving up private information to be used for identity theft.
  • PING: An alert that notifies a blog poster of a response to their post.
  • RSS FEED: a file containing a blog’s latest posts.
  • SEARCH ALGORITHM: a computer program that search engines use to determine which pages show up in search results.
  • SENSATIONALISM: use of shocking details or dramatic language to cause a lot of excitement or interest
  • THREAD: series of messages that have been posted as replies to each other in online discussions
  • TROJAN HORSE: a downloadable piece of software that seems like something fun or useful, but actually has malware lurking inside, such as a virus or spyware program; when downloaded and installed, the program installs the malware, too.
  • TROLL: online commenter whose intent is to attack views expressed online; these attacks are often personal.
  • WEB CRAWLER: program or automated script that methodically browses the World Wide Web.

Last modified: Tuesday, 14 June 2022, 4:21 PM