The Language of Computer Jargon

The language of computer jargon is single-handedly the most terrifying aspect of learning about computers. Language is such a fundamental aspect to the humanities that we become quite lost and bewildered when there is suddenly a text that we can not decifer. Ferdinand de Saussure describes language as a series of signs that are assigned meaning through culture. Every sign is a union of a signifier (word) and a signified (meaning).
We know that DOG= because we have been trained to recognise its signification as a cute little furry creature. But when I see things like programming code, I see: "*%@#???" We are lost in the proverbial woods being hunted by the mythical ones and zeros. I do not have the language to understand the signifiers.

As I work through W3C's School tutorial on CSS, I realise that this process of signification is still ongoing. That I actually understand some of the terms and can assign them meaning. Having also worked through the RSS tutorial and the HTML tutorial, I am beginning to recognise signs and knowing what they mean. The W3C Schools do an excellent job of de-mystifying some basic computer knowledge. When I think of it, when I first looked at Latin I thought, "*%#????" so it is perfectly normal not to understand what all this computer jargon means and for it to look like something from another planet. This is not an easy process. For example, I tried to make this page a different colour using CSS, and it didn't work. I don't know why it didn't work, and I don't know how to make it work. But I do know that CSS means applying a particular style to HTML to make it look a certain way on the page, which requires somehow linking a "style sheet". Eventually, (I think, I hope) I will figure out how to apply this as I start to grasp more of the lingo.

I think what makes some of the readings so difficult and so intimidating is that they are often scripted in a language that I do not understand, referencing programs and technologies that I am not familiar with. The more I read, obviously, the more versed I shall become in what they are trying to say. I am going to look at it from now on as learning a new language. And while I shall never master computer jargonian, I am hoping to start recognising some of its signifiers and understanding what it is signifying.