The application of the term "luddite" appears to be losing it's significance and validity. Where it used to be frowned upon in "modern society" to shun the adoption of newer technology in place of things like wood stoves and ice boxes, these days it seems more prudent to hold off on buying that new cell phone until one can be sure that it won't be replaced by something better the following week, or that you suddenly don't have the latest cell-phone virus taking control of your life. There's also the concern about losing the ability to add two numbers together in your head without having to resort to the built-in calculator.

In light of this, I would like to suggest an antonym for luddite; how about "clone" describing those who happily try out anything the market can give them, regardless of how it can potentially compromise their own freedom or ability to reason.

WELCOME ROB F.

Thanks Luke. Great to be among others with the "word bug".

Welcome Rob F,

I like your idea about the need for an antonym for luddite. I suppose the condition of clone could be called TAD for technology addiction disorder.

I however like to play pranks. I have deliberately kept a functioning dial phone in my house. It's fun to watch the twenty-something friends of my children stare at it wondering what to do when they ask to use the phone. I laughingly call it retro-tech.

They also have difficulty relating to time expressions such as a quarter past seven or half eight and twenty to nine. They need to speak in digital time.

In a related way, perhaps, texting could be retro as well.
We had telegraph and it was replaced by actual voices
on a telephone. Now it is going in a reverse fashion.

I love all the above points and especially TAD suggestion from Kah...

I find people are still afraid of using new technology and unwilling to give it a go. Well that's in the work place and usually there is someone else who is more than happy to do it for them.

I myself like nothing more, than on my days off work....leaving my mobile switched off. I enjoy the peace.

But I get very upset when my computer/internet is not working, due to poor reception (its mobile wireless).

Guess I'm a 'fence sitter', as far as technology is concerned.

luddite.....just sounds like an insult, when said out loud.

I really like the Technology Addiction Disorder, too.
Well said!

that's only if you want your insurance to pay for the therapy...

True!
But what's one more addiction. I understand there are
now over 125 selfhelp programs based on the 12 steps
of AA. I can only imagine how many the AMA recognizes
and which insurance will pay to cure/recover.

I'm really enjoying the direction of this thread.

TAD may work. Tadaholics? TAA?

There's always someone in the office or "org" that is happy to be on the "bleeding" edge of the tech market. I worked years for a manager who was and probably still is like this. His contributions to the knowledge base of what is useful and what is garbage was definitely under-acknowledged.

Technology has it's place, but I too find myself switching off of the "matrix" every once in a while.

Good dial-phone anecdote. I hadn't realized that the tech-dependency has become this severe or obvious.

I work a number of times a week with an LADAC (Licensed
Alcohol,Drug Abuse Counselor)and we discuss the concept
that many have "multiple addictions" as evidenced by the
numbers of the clients who rush outside for a smoke
during 'break' times. I know there is a new self
help program which started up recently OLGA online
gamers anonymous, and it follows the 12 Step method begun
by Bill W. and Bob S. in 1935. This TAD could be really
serious.

A 'tad' serious.


(sorry Luke, couldn't resist that one).

no problems whatsoever, good one, in fact.
-nice little word with more than one meaning.

nice little word with more than one meaning

Of late, I have been pondering how the vocabulary of English, and by extension other languages, consists of two kinds of words: those with more than one meaning (the majority of the lexicon) and those with a single meaning (definitely the minority). It is the latter class of words that gets all the attention. My favorite words have always been adpositions, those little semantic shock troops are always storming some sentence or other and altering the meaning(s) thereto.

do you mean....like... innuendo....Z?

I've often wondered too how one word can mean so many things, and why? Is the formation of a language so devoid
of syllable combinations that a word must mean more than
one thing?

Aren't those dictionaries already thick enough? I think it's good economics. Like I use my pencil for drawing and stirring my coffee and scratching my back.

If you say so...........

do you mean....like... innuendo....Z?

The Vatican suppository?

!

And would you make fun of Islam or Mohammad?

And would you make fun of Islam or Mohammad?

Well, as somebody who is both of Italian heritage and who is still technically a Roman Catholic, I feel I have the right, nay the duty, to make fun of the Wehrmacht Pope and fractured (Italian) English.

How about this: "Two imams walk into a bar, where they find a Rabbi and a Catholic priest arguing over whether it is the duty of the leaders of they respective religions to set a good example for their congregations." Now that's funny! It works on so many levels.

Anyway, that was my first response, but let me just assure you, that I am deeply sorry if I offended you with my feeble joke. I try not to touch on religion or politics in my posts, but being human, I sometimes fail. Again, I am sorry and I apologize.

No harm, no foul. Thanks.