When referring to modern technology, specifically video recording, why do most people keep using archaic terms like “filming” and “videotaping”? I am constantly hearing people recording on YouTube making comments like “You’re being filmed” or this is on videotape”. We know that anyone under 30 on a smartphone has probably never used videotape, and surely has never used an actual film motion picture camera. Where are they using these out of date terms?
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Because they have been the term used for a long time and people know what you’re talking about when you say it. Communication isn’t always about being 100% precise and technically correct, sometimes it’s about conveying ideas and meanings with enough accuracy and efficiency to be effective.
Because language evolves more slowly than technology. We still use terms from sailing ship days and even even earlier. “Not worth his salt” comes from the Roman Empire, when people were literally paid in salt. “Not panning out” comes from the Gold Rush. People keep using the terms because everyone knows what they mean.
There’s a great science fiction novel, ‘Imperial Earth’ by Arthur C. Clark. It’s America’s 500th birthday and a colonist from Titan is invited to represent his world. After traveling through a forest for the first time, he suddenly realizes where the terms ‘roots’ and ‘branches’ came from, even though he’s used them all his life.
The terms were codified when the activity was invented. Before film there was no commonplace way to capture motion pictures (serial photography for zoetropes notwithstanding), so that activity became known as “filming”. Likewise, when handheld magnetic tape recorders came to the audio and then video market, it was the first time a lot of people had access to affordable recordings that could be easily replayed, so recordings were referred to as “on videotape”. When digital recording came along, there was already a word meaning “to make a motion picture record of something”, so there was no great need to popularise a new word.
The terms are still idiomatic even if the technology is archaic. We still use terms like “carbon copy” and most people under 25 probably don’t even know what that is.
The real reason is that the language hasn’t developed a suitable replacement. “Recorded” is ambiguous. “Video recorded” is awkward. Until there’s a new word, “filmed” will be sticking around. But there’s no real need for a new word when “filmed” is universally understood.
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