One in 10 believe ‘HTML’ is an STD, one in four think ‘gigabyte’ is an insect

While it’s a bit difficult to convey sound through text, please note that as I write this article, I am hitting my head against the desk.

In a recent survey, coupons website Vouchercloud discovered that most people are not up to snuff when it comes to basic tech terminology.

In fact, the results were incredibly disappointing.

The survey involved 2,392 men and women over the age of 18. Prior to the survey, they were not told that it was meant to find out their grasp on basic tech jargon; rather, they were simply given tech and non-tech terms and asked to choose what they thought was the proper definition from three choices.

As the title of the article suggests, one in 10 of these folks said that they thought HTML — an acronym for hyper-text markup language, a.k.a. the language used to develop websites — was a sexually transmitted disease. 

27% thought gigabyte — a measurement unit for the storage capacity of an electronic device — was a South American–based insect.

*Thump* *Thump* *Thump*

Additional results are as follows:
• 42% believed a “motherboard” was “the deck of a cruise ship.” For those in this group, please note a motherboard is a circuit board that holds the key components of a computer.
• 23% thought an “MP3″ was a “Star Wars” robot. It’s an audio file.
• 12% had the understanding that “USB” was an acronym for a European country. It is a type of connector.
• 15% defined “software” as comfortable clothing. Software is a general term for computer programs.
• 18% identified “Blu-ray” as a marine animal. It is, in fact, a disc used to store HD video.
• 77% could not define “SEO.” It actually stands for “search-engine optimization.”

Finally, when asked to define a “tablet computer,” 10% said that it was a computer chip the size of a pill, while 2% checked the box that said it was a computer that reminds users about tablet medication and when to take it.

Despite the vast collection of incorrect answers, a majority of the test takers (61%) said at the end of the survey that it is important to have a good knowledge of technology in this day and age.

“Technology is a huge interest for our user base, and month after month we see thousands of people visiting our site to look for coupons and deals to use when purchasing their favorite tech products,” a company spokeswoman said in a statement. “It seems that quite a few of us need to brush up on our tech definitions.”

Story via latimes.com