What’s In a Name?

I think I need to buy a better camera. I want one of those cameras that comes with a built-in telephone. I have one now, and the phone part works fine, but the camera part could be a little better quality.

I like the fact that today’s cameras can run various kinds of apps. For instance, I can ask my camera to find the closest Chinese restaurant, and it only takes the camera a few seconds to respond.

My camera also has a GPS that can give me turn-by-turn driving directions. My camera allows me to send and receive text messages and emails. It allows me to surf the World Wide Web.

I know what you’re thinking: “He’s talking about his cell phone as if it were a camera.”

Sure I am, because it is a camera. Why should we call it a cell phone? The reason we do that is historical. Originally, mobile phones were just that and nothing more. Then they got smaller and came with some simple games and the ability to text. A camera was added. A computer chip and an operating system were added. Apps were added. The “smart phone” was born. We call those gadgets “phones” because we need to call them something, and phone is as good as anything else. Smart phones are just little computers with a lot of features added, such as GPS, camera, email, web browser, the ability to shoot and play back video, and, of course, a phone. We still call them phones when clearly they are much more than phones.

They could have started out as cameras that slowly gained these other functions. Would we have called them “smart cameras"? Would we call them cameras if they could make phone calls? Why not?

The development of words is interesting. A word can gain a life of it’s own. You want to take a picture so you grab your phone when you go out. It can do a hundred other things, but we call it a phone.

When I go out to take a photo or shoot some video, I grab my camera. And while I’m out, I may use my camera to place a phone call. Because I have a full-featured smart camera with a built-in phone. I mean, what’s in a name?