bert (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} zubatac) wrote,@ 2005-10-08 20:37:00 |
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Words mean things
When I was configuring my LiveJournal account, it asked me for my "list of interests."
The concept of listing my interests has always been a bit amusing to me. Does that mean all things that I may ever be interested in discussing with someone likedpolicar? (I might as well go cut+paste the English dictionary in that case. And maybe portions of other languages.) Or everything that I may have a consistent desire to talk about or do? (That's still quite a long list, and not one that I can just come up with out of thin air, either.) Or things I may actually hope to get to do in the foreseeable future? (Thanks to gljiva, that's a very short list.)
Of course, what listing my interests really means here is none of these things. The interests I'm listing will be used for two things. First, you will be able to look at them on my info page, perhaps getting a bit of amusement out of that. (This is what prompted "changing diapers".) Secondly, lj users will be able to search for the interests I lists and come up with me. (This is why I haven't included, say, "Hrvatska" or "Croatia"-- which I do care passionately about, but you folks likely know that and I don't care if any web.dorks out there do.)
This is how languages get customized (and sometimes evolve) to fit our needs. [English majors in the audience, this is your queue to take potshots... =) ] If LiveJournal needs a term (e.g. to denote "people who I want to allow to read my non-public entries" or "...whose journals I want to read regularly"), they will pick a word that's concise and "close enough" (e.g. "friend"). But "friend" in this usage is really not someone you're very close to, or even necessarily acquainted with; it's really most aligned with its very old meaning of "one that is not hostile" (Merriam-Webster).
So "friend" now has a new (old?) shade of meaning-- confined for now to a very specific context. But it may not stay that way... See language drift. Drift, language, drift!
OK, it's way past my bedtime now. Good night.
When I was configuring my LiveJournal account, it asked me for my "list of interests."
The concept of listing my interests has always been a bit amusing to me. Does that mean all things that I may ever be interested in discussing with someone like
dpolicar? (I might as well go cut+paste the English dictionary in that case. And maybe portions of other languages.) Or everything that I may have a consistent desire to talk about or do? (That's still quite a long list, and not one that I can just come up with out of thin air, either.) Or things I may actually hope to get to do in the foreseeable future? (Thanks to gljiva, that's a very short list.)Of course, what listing my interests really means here is none of these things. The interests I'm listing will be used for two things. First, you will be able to look at them on my info page, perhaps getting a bit of amusement out of that. (This is what prompted "changing diapers".) Secondly, lj users will be able to search for the interests I lists and come up with me. (This is why I haven't included, say, "Hrvatska" or "Croatia"-- which I do care passionately about, but you folks likely know that and I don't care if any web.dorks out there do.)
This is how languages get customized (and sometimes evolve) to fit our needs. [English majors in the audience, this is your queue to take potshots... =) ] If LiveJournal needs a term (e.g. to denote "people who I want to allow to read my non-public entries" or "...whose journals I want to read regularly"), they will pick a word that's concise and "close enough" (e.g. "friend"). But "friend" in this usage is really not someone you're very close to, or even necessarily acquainted with; it's really most aligned with its very old meaning of "one that is not hostile" (Merriam-Webster).
So "friend" now has a new (old?) shade of meaning-- confined for now to a very specific context. But it may not stay that way... See language drift. Drift, language, drift!
OK, it's way past my bedtime now. Good night.
