I enjoyed this article on The New Inquiry by Willie Osterweil concerning Euphemisms and the Internet. There Are numerous terms that we use that not only simplify the reality of the network we use, but give power and human qualities to the machine and devalue the human or physical aspects of that network. Osterweil points out how the term “smart phone” expands what we think of as ‘phone’, but reduces the the quality of “smart” making it equal to “dumb person”.
I particularly dislike the term “cloud computing.” Osterweil calls euphemisms “the lie that tells the truth.” In this sense, “cloud’s” truth is how the movement of what was once local on our hard drives and brains to giant server farms feels ephemeral. The information is there, it’s just floating above us.  However term doesn’t acknowledge the thousands of physical servers all over the world, the electricity used to power and keep them cool or the hundreds of people that keep them maintained. Apple, Google, and Amazon have all opened cloud storage services, many that seem to have an end goal of having all of our computing done though the browser on the “cloud.” This system has its benefits, I like being able to access mail on any computer I use for example, but centralized architecture like that does not seem healthy for the network in the long run. 

photo (via blownpixel)