Survey finds 11pc of Americans think HTML is an STD

5 Mar 2014

When it comes to tech terms, 11pc of people believe HTML (hypertext markup language) is a sexually transmitted disease (STD), a survey of American computer users’ knowledge suggests.

A study by coupons site Vouchercloud found quite a few people needed to brush up on their tech definitions, The Los Angeles Times reported.

Some 77pc of those surveyed could not identify what SEO means and 27pc identified ‘gigabyte’ as an insect commonly found in South America.

Some 42pc said they believed a ‘motherboard’ was ‘the deck of a cruise ship’ and 23pc thought ‘MP3’ was a Star Wars robot related to R2D2 or CP30.

Eighteen per cent identified ‘Blu-ray’ as a marine animal and 15pc said they believed ‘software’ is comfortable clothing.

And 12pc said ‘USB’ was the acronym for a European country.

It’s little comfort that companies headquartered in Silicon Valley, California, devised/invented many of these technologies. Tim Berners-Lee, however, invented HTML at CERN (the European Organisation for Nuclear Research) near Geneva, Switzerland, in 1990.

Confused tech user image via Shutterstock

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com