Maybe it’s just a subjective perception of mine (plus I live in a non-English-speaking country, so my perspective might be even more biased), but I seem to observe a trend of declining usage of the word “computer” in general parlance outside the expert communities. It’s still used for high-performance things or cutting edge research - in such contexts, people talk about “supercomputers” or “quantum computers”. Also, the academic discipline is still called “computer science”.
But when we talk about the machines in everyday life, I think the word is being replaced by more specific words describing the kind of computer we’re talking about. Twenty years ago, somebody who just bought a new device would have commonly said something like “I got a new computer.” Nowadays, you’d rather say something like “I got a new laptop.” (The thing that would have been the paradigm case of a computer twenty years ago, namely the desktop, is something which only few people get nowadays.) And for things such as smartphones or tablets, the word “computer” is entirely uncommon, even though they fall into that category from a technical point of view (in the sense of being programmable electronic devices).
That’s at least my observation. I wonder if others are under the same impression.
It’s a very broad term that really only worked when we only had a handful of “thinking machines”. Now, almost everything more advanced than a hammer can think.
I agree that the use of ‘computer’ has become increasingly narrow in scope. I have a couple of older programmable calculators from the 1970s which the accompanying manuals describe as ‘handheld computers’ but nobody today would call modern graphing calculators (which are far more powerful) by that outdated term unless they really wanted to emphasize their programming capabilities.
Yes, and I think the basic principles of computing are eroding too. I learned in computer science class in college (in the 1990’s) that the same inputs always lead to the same outputs. Computing was always comforting to me in that way. If something worked, you could do it again and again.
This viewpoint was damaged when I started using WordPerfect at the office in 2002 (I know I’ll take flack for that; maybe our installation of it was bad) but that was the first software program to make me question this fundamental theory. There was no telling what would happen to a document (I swear!) even given the same commands.
And today human users have to battle AI at every turn; nothing works the same way twice; the same internet search gives different results depending on who does it; you can’t just write specific instructions for humans to follow because everyone’s experience will be different.
Obviously, deep down at a circuit level the same inputs to the AI engine lead to the same outputs (if you specify the entire state of the Internet at the time of the search). But at a human level, they do not. The comforting, reliable, neutral fundamentalness of computers and computing has been lost.
“Computers” as I know them exist more and more only at the level of data science, crunching through mathematical calculations, etc. which are in more and more rarified areas of science. I bought a new “desktop computer” last year but I fear it may be the last one I own.
This Google ngram result suggests computer and PC peaked in the mid-1980s. Desktop peaked in the late '90s. Laptop, tablet and AI are on the rise, but not enough to explain the dramatic drop in use of the word computer.
My guess would be that in the 1980s, in some contexts you had to specify computers were involved (computer-aided drafting, computerized telephone switching, and so on). Today it’s taken as a given that such applications involve computers unless specified otherwise.
It does seem like it’s declining, but I still use it a lot, as does my wife. She’ll say “where’d you leave the computer?” when we’re talking about a laptop, or “I gotta do some work on the computer” when I need to edit on my desktop. I don’t usually use the terms “laptop” and “desktop” myself, just the general “computer.” But I grew up in the 80s.
Computers? You mean those nice lady mathematicians with the tables of integrals and logarithms and the Marchant calculators? Odd, now that you mention it, I have not seen them around lately.
Apple took some heat for their ‘What’s a Computer’ ad a few years ago. It follows a teen doing cool stuff on an iPad but seems unfamiliar with the word computer. Linked is the 30 second one, there’s a longer version out there too.
In many contexts, the word “computer”, which generally means “desktop or laptop” is being replaced by “device” - desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone.
There aren’t as many contexts these days where “desktop or laptop” is a category that people have need of. For specifics - “my desktop” or “my phone”. For generality - “my device”
Yeah, first a surge in usage, then more specialized terms took over. You didn’t have to specify that a computer was involved, you wanted to specify a computer because that was the selling point.
The term I hear most often is PC. People don’t really seem to need a more general word that also encompasses Macs. And I’ve never known computer to be used for consoles or handheld devices.
And, yes, when referencing things online, I’m more likely to use “device” as the generic due to all the different categories of device that can go online. In fact, I’m not sure I use “device” to refer to things that can’t go online anymore.
Yup, and props to the OP for coming up with one of those interesting questions on linguistic evolution that first make you realize that it never occurred to you and then wonder why it didn’t because it seems so obviously significant.
My biggest job function lately has been computing, that is, numerical analysis with computers. I think “computer” is the word most often used between me and others doing the same.
But the thing I’m using right now to post while drinking coffee, I tend to call a “desktop”. Which is odd, because I also use the uppermost physical surface of my desk, and I don’t seem to have vocabulary for referring to it.
Anecdotal data from family members, my kids, and their friends - “computer” is used almost exclusively to refer to a desktop computer. And even then they don’t differentiate the parts of the computer - the monitor and the tower are both the computer. People have seen my dual-monitor setup and have asked me why I need two computers. When I answer that there is one computer with two monitors they are lost.
One of my old clients was BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT (the UK’s professional body). BCS used to be British Computing Society, which throw up images in one’s mind of Alan Turing, in a bunker, wearing a tweed jacket with patches on the elbows.
Which is a roundabout way os saying I agree with the OP.
I agree with the OP that computer is fading. I use a desktop tower PC situated next to and somewhat below my “real” desk. A few years ago I realized that some people did not understand what I meant when I said computer. So now I call it my workstation and everyone gets the “not handheld, but a computer device” concept.