Jun
24
Viral Fiddling
June 24, 2009 |
A few moons ago I posted about a modern phenomenon I call DIGITAL FIDGETING. I am honored to see that the concept has taken wings and is flapping about in the book blogosphere, viral-style, as every young meme should. First, my friend and local mama/bookblogger Marla cited LiveWires for a piece she wrote for her excellent blog The Relaxed Writer with some truly useful advice on the subject of procrastination via Digital Fidgeting, and now it seems the concept has flown over to Write to Done where resident blogger Mary has crafted her own interpretation: How to Stop Digital Fiddling and Start Writing. I think we all know now what we need to do to stop all this procrastination (there are even some tools out there for muting the digital fuzz that distracts us from our real purpose). More importantly, I was amused to see in WTD’s post that in the translation from blog to blog to blog, the term “Digital Fidgeting” has been replaced with “Digital Fiddling”. Personally, I think the word fiddling has dirty connotations which is precisely why I titled my newborn meme Digital Fidgeting. Hard to spell correctly, yes, but way classier don’t you think?
Let’s see what the experts say:
fiddle (n.)
O.E. fiðele, related to O.N. fiðla, M.Du. vedele, Ger. Fiedel, all probably from M.L. vitula “stringed instrument,” perhaps related to L. vitularia “celebrate joyfully,” from Vitula, Roman goddess of joy and victory, who probably, like her name, originated among the Sabines. The verb is from 1377; the fig. sense of “to act idly” is from 1530. The word has been relegated to colloquial usage by its more proper cousin, violin (q.v.), a process encouraged by phraseology such as fiddlestick (15c., originally “the bow of a fiddle;” meaning “nonsense” is from 1621) and fiddle-faddle (1577), which is unrelated, being a reduplication of obsolete faddle “to trifle.” Fiddler’s Green first recorded 1825, from sailors’ slang. Fiddler crab is from 1714. Fiddle-head “one with a head as hollow as a fiddle” is from 1887. Fit as a fiddle is from 1616.
Hmmm. I’d say “fiddling” does seem to do a rather fine job of communicating the concept at hand. Now let’s look at “fidgeting” and compare:
fidget (n.)
1674, as the fidget “uneasiness,” later the fidgets, from a 16c. v. fidge “move restlessly,” from M.E. fiken “to fidget, hasten,” from O.N. fikjask “to desire eagerly” (cf. Ger. ficken “to move about briskly;” see f*ck). The v. fidget is first attested 1672 (implied in fidgetting).
Wait, what? It seems that fidgeting is the word with the dirty connotations. Furthermore, the word fidget is not at all as useful for our purposes as the word fiddle. Plus, the Etymology Dictionary spells fidgeting incorrectly. Weird indeed.
Well, let’s just say that I think Digital Fidgeting sounds better and is better. So let’s re-infect our viral culture with the cooler term, shall we? Why is it cooler? Because I think the metaphor is more effective. Definitions be damned!
Breaking the rules well is what art (and meme-making? and branding!) is all about.
NPR had a good show recently on the concept of Viral Culture and something interesting called Nanostories. Listen here.