It would be wrong to describe internet information as purely metaphorical or, worse still, purely linguistic. When accessed, online information does physically exist, though only for an instant as electrical impulses. We imagine, because it makes intuitive sense, that this information is stored as a sort of computer language and that the computer translates from computerese into a natural language for its users. However, the “computer language” from which it is translated does not exist. Translation (or metamorphosis) requires a start and end point: from Vulcan to Esperanto, say, or from man to cockroach. But the computer language, despite having reached such heights of complexity that no human could understand it without the machine, is not a language at all but merely instructions for a tool. Remember, the first computer language was “spoken” by punching holes into card stock. Translation and metamorphosis involve changing linguistic contexts while meaning remains unchanged. But the meaning of this sentence that I write now does not, cannot exist in computerese: The computer merely takes each keystroke as an instruction and then represents my instructions back to me.
The complexity of this task — and the misunderstanding that results — is where euphemism enters. When I hit a nail with a hammer, I think: Witness the power of my will! But when I google “How do I build a birdhouse?” it appears that I have asked Google a question and that it has answered — as though Google were a conscious entity, not the world’s most complex hammer.
– Willie Osterweil, “Internet as Euphemism,” The New Inquiry Magazine, No. 3: Arguing the Web
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