A debate rages among journalism schools across this country: should we teach our students how to code?
The faculties of these institutions–made up primarily of esteemed veterans of “print” journalism and “newspapers,” whatever the f*ck those are–sway between yes and no, but whether or not colleges teach coding to the future generations of gum-shoe reporters is moot. Schools should just start teaching people all over this country basic computer terminology, because 11 percent of Americans think that HTML is a type of S.T.D.
Seriously.
The Los Angeles Times cites a study conducted by Vouchercloud.net* to see which computer terms Americans actually knew. The results, including the above dud, aren’t too encouraging.
Besides HTML, there were some other amusing findings:
• 77% of respondents could not identify what SEO means. SEO stands for “Search-Engine Optimization”
• 27% identified “gigabyte” as an insect commonly found in South America. A gigabyte is a measurement unit for the storage capacity of an electronic device.
• 42% said they believed a “motherboard” was “the deck of a cruise ship.” A motherboard is usually a circuit board that holds many of the key components of a computer.
• 23% thought an “MP3” was a “Star Wars” robot. It is actually an audio file.
• 18% identified “Blu-ray” as a marine animal. It is a disc format typically used to store high-definition videos.
• 15% said they believed “software” is comfortable clothing. Software is a general term for computer programs.
• 12% said “USB” is the acronym for a European country. In fact, USB is a type of connector.
The good news: at least this study isn’t as damning as the one that found Americans to be the absolute worst in teenage pregnancy, infant mortality rates, obesity, diabetes, homicide, heart and lung disease and those darn S.T.D.s among developed nations. Also, it’s only 11 percent who confuse HTML. We suppose there could always be worse percentages.
All that’s needed now is an explainer about how this text’s appearing on this webpage is fundamentally different than “the clap.” Shouldn’t be too hard to understand.
* — Vouchercloud.net said it polled 2,392 men and women over the age of 18 for this study, but its being a coupons and discount codes website take its study however you want.