I love the internet! I mean who doesn’t these days right? Viral has always been something I associated with video. You know, when a YouTube video gets passed around a million times and you end up seeing it on 5-6 of your favorite blogs. But a word going viral? I would have never guessed it. Apparently a new internet term was coined this weekend at PodCamp Pittsburgh 2 and like most things broadcasted on Twitter it’s spreading like crazy. Bacn.
“So what is it” you ask? Well my boy Chris Brogan breaks it down for us:
When you receive email that Geek is now following you on Twitter and Jennifer Gold just wrote on your Facebook wall, that’s bacn (pronounced “bacon”). It’s any email you receive that isn’t spam, but isn’t exactly a personal message either. Your electronic phone bill is bacn. Your Google alerts are bacn.
Or as Justin Kownacki says “bacn”, aka, the email you WANT but don’t have time for.” I love it. I heard it yesterday and after reading Mr. Brogan’s post on it I instantly starting using it.
Labeling things is important I think, especially on the internet. Justin lays it down for us:
Love it or hate it, “bacn” is a way to differentiate important-but-untimely email from “real” email or spam. It’s a descriptive word. It’s a classification. It’s useful.
Given the fact that so much miscommunication in this world comes from common misunderstandings — and that folks in Arab nations have dozens of words for the parts of a camel — I think it’s safe to say that we could all benefit from more (and clearer) language.
I wasn’t in Pittsburgh that rainy day to hear the birth of Bacn, but then again, I didn’t have to be.
Photo credit: Sappymoosetree
When it comes to our freedom to create new words, I’ll always be laying it down…
For me, one of the most amazing things is that a joke made by a handful of people on Saturday has spread around the world and is now being hotly debated (”Is the word necessary?” “Will Web 2.0 ever use vowels again?” etc.) on both sides. Yay for discourse!
Thanks for an informative post! I’d been wondering what the deal was with bacn…plus that graphic is the cutest! I don’t eat real-life bacon, but adorable little drawings of it lookin’ all happy? Precious!
Yes I’ll second that. I was wondering what that was about. Thanks for the post!
That is too awesome.
Wow, this word has come a long way. I really don’t see it taking off like spam but everyone has to try. I remember when bacn meant something totally different and I am not talking about breakfast food. I tried to sound it out and personally I sound like a geek trying to be hip and I am hip. (hahahaha) Anyway, I let everyone else run with this one, but I am glad that Chris and you are bringing it to my attention otherwise I would have been thinking about the previous meaning. Now that would have been hilarious.
Hahahaha I found these definitions that can help explain the the meanings I had in mind. http://www.sex-lexis.com/Sex-Dictionary/bacon