Day: March 5, 2014

f you’re talking tech with Americans, you may want to avoid using any jargon.

A recent study found that many Americans are lost when it comes to tech-related terms, with 11% saying that they thought HTML was a sexually transmitted disease. The study was conducted by Vouchercloud.net, a coupons website, as a way to determine how knowledgeable users are when it comes to tech terms. “Technology is a huge interest for our user base, and month after month we see thousands of people visiting our site to look for coupons and deals to use when purchasing their favorite tech products,” a company spokeswoman said in a statement. “It seems that quite a few of us need to brush up on our tech definitions.”

Besides HTML, there were some other amusing findings:

• 27% identified “gigabyte” as an insect commonly found in South America.
• 42% said they believed a “motherboard” was “the deck of a cruise ship.”
• 23% thought an “MP3” was a “Star Wars” robot.
• 18% identified “Blu-ray” as a marine animal.
• 15% said they believed “software” is comfortable clothing.
• 12% said “USB” is the acronym for a European country.

Despite the incorrect answers, 61% of the respondents said it is important to have a good knowledge of technology in this day and age.

The study involved 2,392 men and women 18 years of age or older. The participants were not told that the study was specifically looking into their knowledge of tech terms. They were presented with both tech and non-tech terms and were asked to choose from three possible definitions.