The other day, I read a fantastic comic strip that succinctly encapsulates how we are acquiring new vocabulary with the advent of new technology: A family at the breakfast table. Father is reading the paper, when the son sees a news item and says: “Wii consoles now stream netflix.” The father comments: “A few years ago that wouldn’t have even sounded like a sentence.”

It still won’t sound like a sentence if you don’t know the meanings of 1) Wii consoles (a device) 2) streaming (an internet process) 3) netflix (a video download site).

Does it mean we are technologically illiterate?