Know your PVR from your VoIP? And your VOD from your IPTV? Probably not, according to a new survey which suggests the 21st century consumer is at risk of being overwhelmed by new digital technology.
Three-quarters of us have never heard of VOD (video on demand), according to the Nielsen/NetRatings poll. Almost as many - 70% - haven't got a clue what a "Wiki" is, while while the phrase Web 2.0 remains a mystery to two-thirds of the online population.
Chances are you're smarter than the average bear because you have taken the trouble to read a media blog, but what about the population at large? RSS? Two-thirds have never heard of it. Surprisingly perhaps, the same proportion of us have never heard of "triple play".
"In the relentless quest for the next big thing when it comes to new forms of digital consumption, there is a significant tendency for the industry to overestimate consumer's knowledge and understanding of the seemingly limitless new terms and products out there," reckons European internet analyst Alex Burmaster.
"With the rate of technological change there is a lot of confusion amongst consumers of what is referring to what.
"For example, 69% of Britons online has never heard of Really Simple Syndication, 67% has never heard of RSS, yet 40% say they receive automatic news feeds to their browser or desktop - which is the service these terms refer to!"
It was so much easy in the old days - television, radio, and remote control, the control which you could never find, hence "remote".
So what new-fangled terms is the great British public most comfortable with? Personal Video Recorder, Instant Messenger, Digital Video Recorder and High Definition Television all score high recognition rates. But their acronyms - PVR, IM etc - leave people cold. There's one lesson for the marketers, then.
The survey also reveals that nearly 4 in 10 Britons online access the web at least once a week via their mobile phone, and just under 3 in 10 via their TV.
"When it comes to the actually technology owned, the modern consumer is certainly well equipped," says Burmaster. "The average Briton online uses at least two different devices every week to access the web and no longer needs to be tied to their computer to surf their favourite sites."
Really Simple What? Digital terms and acronyms, and the percentage of Britons online who have "never heard of it"
1 VOD, 75% 2 Wikis, 70% 3 IPTV, 69% 4 Really Simple Syndication, 69% 5 PVR, 68% 6 Web 2.0 67% 7 RSS, 67% 8 Triple Play, 66% VoIP 59% 10 IM 57%
Online devices, and percentage of Britons accessing web via them at least once a week
1 PC/laptop, 96% 2 Mobile phone 38% 3 TV 29% 4 WiFi 15% 5 Games console 12% 6 PDA 6%
