Blogging v dogging

Blogging v dogging

Hi-tech obsessions of a few?

More people know what dogging is than blogging, according to a survey which suggests that Brits are not as tech-savvy as might be expected.

Most metrosexuals will know that blogging about their podcasting is perhaps a bit passé, while flashmobbing is decidedly retro.

Happy slapping a chav who is indulging in a bit of dogging, however, might be the way to go.

Whatever advertisers, journalists and residents of the internet community might like to think, much of the country finds hi-tech antics mystifying.

Research conducted among taxi drivers, hairdressers and pub landlords - backed up by conventional market research of more than 1,000 adults in the UK - has found that seven out of 10 people don't know what a blog is. Nine out of 10 don't know what podcasting or flashmobbing are. (See below for definitions.)

Four out of 10 know what dogging is, perhaps due to the activities of certain celebrities. Only 49% of people know what a chav is, despite the widespread coverage they have received in both tabloid and broadsheet papers.

Nearly nine out of 10 people now know what broadband is, however.

For the advertising firm which did the research, DDB, the results came as a bit of a shock, and indicate that marketers are assuming that their target audiences are more interested in technology than they actually are.

Even among parts of the population classified as "early adopters", knowledge of blogs was scarce. Two out of three men, two out of three 16-24 year-olds, and two out of three single people hadn't heard of them. Having internet access also appeared to make little difference: two out of three people with internet access didn't know what they were.

No buzz

Sarah Carter, planning director at DDB London, says their panel of cabbies, beauticians and landlords gives a good indication of what people are actually talking about.

"When I asked the panel whether people were talking about blogging, they thought I meant dogging.

"Our research not only shows that there is no buzz about blogging and podcasting outside of our media industry bubble, but also that people have no understanding of what the words mean. It's a real wake-up call."

The research comes a week after a separate study said workers had as much trouble deciphering computer jargon as they did a foreign language.

Blogging - maintaining "an online journal or diary" (OED)

Podcasting - making audio files available online for "software to automatically download the files for listening at the user's convenience" (Wikipedia)

Metrosexual - someone whose habits and grooming are similar to "those considered typical of a fashionable, urban, homosexual man" (OED)

Flashmobbing - "when a crowd converges at a specific time and place, to participate in apparent random acts, and then dissipates" (Wikipedia)

Dogging - having sex with strangers in a public place. "Observers are encouraged, thus making dogging a form of exhibitionism" (Wikipedia)

Chav - people who are "uneducated, uncultured and prone to antisocial or immoral behaviour" (Wikipedia) Happy Slapping - "The practice of slapping or punching somebody unsuspectedly and recording it with a camera phone." (Urban Dictionary)

Broadband - high speed internet access "typically capable of transmitting 512 kilobits per second (kbit/s)" (Wikipedia)

source : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4288038.stm