Technology has changed everything in our lives and verbs like blog, tweet, follow and friend go in and out of our vocabulary all day long, but there are some new ones I think we need to add.

I don’t know what to call it, but we need a verb that means to check your spam filter before taking any further action.   Registration is pretty active right now for Skip’s Summer School and for some reason at least a half dozen people have contacted me to verify their registration went through.  All of them have been in the system – so where did the auto-confirmation go?  Every time it’s been in their spam filter.

A few weeks ago I responded to an email from a friend.  All I did was hit reply and my buddy’s corporate email system threw me out and even his “postmaster” had the nerve to tell me about it!  Why?  I’ve never even met the guy, something in my subject line, my name, my routing would not allow me into his exclusive email club.

Next is the cell phone.  We take it for granted when we lose a call.  We don’t even hesitate to call back.  We just accept we’ve lost the connection.  Personally I’d like to just call it “Verizoned” which would mean I lost the call and my support team of the guy with glasses and his band of 200 followers never made it to Akron.  Knowing that Verizon would be less than happy – here’s another new verb we need.  Definition?  When you get cut off and know you need to call back.

Also on the list is a word for talking to dead air when you are cut off and don’t know it.  How many times have you been cut off and continued the call?  And then, when you do realize you were talking to dead air and you call back you ask, “What was the last thing you heard me say?”  I want a word for that knot you get in your stomach when the person answers, “Hello” as the last thing they heard and you realize the last fifteen minutes have to be completely repeated!  It’s like being trapped in the movie Ground Hog Day!

I do know and respect at least one contemporary rule of engagement.  The person who made the call, when the signal is lost, is the one who calls back.  Again, don’t know what to call the originator of the call, but at least we all seem to respect and understand the rule.

And one last one we need to work on…

It’s a facebook and email challenge:   What do we call morons like me who hit reply with a sarcastic comment back to the sender, meant only for the sender, not realizing it was a group email and twenty seven people just found out how you really feel?  Or, somebody blind copies you on an email and you hit reply all, not realizing nobody was supposed to know you saw the email in the first place?

Years ago I brought my Dad to a PPA convention and we had adjoining rooms.  As he was checking out he was laughing.  “Hey Dad, what’s the scoop?”   With tears of laughter in his eyes he responded, “You know the first night I thought it was so great that the Hyatt puts a little night light on your phone so you can see it in the dark.  The second night it really bothered me and I put a pillow over it.  This morning I put my glasses on and saw that it was a message light.  Your mother called me two days ago because she couldn’t get the garage to open.  I sure hope she got out!”

As the guy who never learned how to program a VCR and has challenges today with his DVR,  I guess it’s true what they say, “The apple doesn’t fall from the tree!”