So I was driving into the office this morning, standing in horrible traffic on the BQE when I overheard the following amongst the chatter on the radio: 11% of Americans think HTML is an STD. I didn’t really buy into it either. I thought surely this is a creative commercial – but no. The Hot97 Morning Show was referencing an article published in the LA Times just 2 days ago regarding a study conducted by Vouchercloud.com to determine how knowledgeable users are when it comes to tech terms. What the study found was well … priceless.
- 77% of respondents could not identify what SEO means. You know, “Search-Engine Optimization”.
- 27% identified “gigabyte” as an insect commonly found in South America.
- 42% said they believed a “motherboard” was “the deck of a cruise ship.”
- 23% thought an “MP3” was a “Star Wars” robot.
- 18% identified “Blu-ray” as a marine animal.
- 15% said they believed “software” is comfortable clothing.
- 12% said “USB” is the acronym for a European country.
- 11% said “HTML” was an STD.
- 10% said “HTML” was the main road structure throughout England.
The study involved 2,392 men and women 18 years of age or older. The participants were not told that the study was specifically looking into their knowledge of tech terms. They were presented with both tech and non-tech terms and were asked to choose from three possible definitions. The firm that conducted the survey, 10 Yetis Public Relations, said it stands by its work and has provided the full survey results here. If for some reason this goes offline, I have uploaded a mirror of the results: Survey Breakdown- Tech Confusions.
Now some of the mistakes I can understand. MP3 may sound a bitlike C-3PO – and if this study was conducted at 9am in the morning I might also make the same mistake prior to my first cup of coffee. Some of these though …. I just have no words for. 14% of people asked said that a “hash brown” was a word or phase used on social media with the # sign. A hash brown – those wonderful, delicious, pan-fried potato pieces – is suddenly not even a food. It’s been around longer than hashtags! Granted 29% of these people also said a migraine was a type of rice.
Part of me wonders exactly who made up the 2,392 men and women for this survey. Regardless this made my morning commute that much more entertaining; and I thought you all might enjoy the read.