Posts tagged as:

social media

GIG: a single engagement for a performer or other professional

May 7, 2013

There are a variety of meanings for the word gig, but for this posting I have chosen to focus on the one which inspired me to check out the word. It has to do with entertainment or other fields of employment where a professional books individual events, one at a time.    They are accumulated in [...]

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ANGER: a strong feeling of displeasure and belligerence

November 9, 2012

Who doesn’t get angry?  Anger is a natural response to the perception that something wrong has occurred.  It is, under most circumstances, an emotion which just happens.  You don’t have to sit around and say to yourself, “Well, I think I’ll get angry now.” Under many circumstances anger can be a positive force in your [...]

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XENOPHOBIA [zen-uh-FOH-bee-uh] : fear or unreasonable dislike of foreigners

November 2, 2012

Our family has hosted seven foreign exchange students over the years, and our younger daughter was a Rotary Exchange student for a year in another country. We have also traveled extensively throughout the world where we have experienced cultures dramatically different from our own.  So the idea that anyone has a fear of, or dislike [...]

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TRIBE: an accounting of a group of people descended from the same ancestor … or ….

October 1, 2012

If you are a biblical scholar, the word tribe leads you immediately to the 12 Tribes of Israel, the descendants of Jacob. If you are an American you probably drift to the first settlers of this land, the American Indian tribes.  Having a foster daughter who is an Oglala Lakota Sioux and a son who [...]

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ZEITGEIST [TSAHYT-gahyst] : what’s happening in a specific environment at a particular time

August 31, 2012

Wikipedia says zeitgeist is “ the general cultural, intellectual, ethical, spiritual, or political climate within a nation or even specific groups, along with the general ambiance, morals, sociocultural direction, and mood associated with the current era.”   That’s a lot of words, but they make sense.   Zeitgeist is a term that comes directly from the German [...]

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CASH MOB: an organized rush to purchase from an identified store

July 8, 2012

The Buy Local movement has taken a number of different twists, but the cash mob may well be the most dramatic.   On a specific day, at a specific time, thanks to social media, hordes of local people descend upon an identified store and do what every store owner dreams about:  they buy things. It is [...]

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INITIALISMS: phrases, using only initials, emerging from use in social media

May 18, 2012

A whole new language is being created by the creators and users of social media.  It is especially visible on such locations as Twitter which limits the number of digits available on any one message to 140.  Consequently, economy in digits has led to the use of initials which stand for a phrase.   These creations [...]

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CONNECTION: a rapidly-changing concept having to do with interaction with another person

April 27, 2012

When younger people say that they “connected” with someone over the weekend they could mean anything from having seen somebody and waved to them to having a sexual encounter with another person.  It is a word that requires a context, and younger people seem to have an ability to identify context in order to ascribe [...]

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ABUNDANCE: an extremely plentiful or oversufficient quantity or supply*

February 22, 2012

The “Law of Abundance” expressed in today’s graphic is open to discussion, and some macro-economists would probably question the veracity of it.  But it is a philosophical (and theological) concept that has been debated and embraced by many for centuries.  Clearly, it is an idealism.  But I am inclined to come down on the side [...]

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STUMP SPEECH: a prepared political presentation which is “on message”

August 14, 2011

I suppose that … literally … the photo tells it best.  A stump speech can best be delivered while standing on a tree stump in the midst of an audience.   But the term has come to mean something broader.  A political  stump speech is one prepared by a campaign committee to include the specific, [...]

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