Over the years communication has been symbolized by different things. Flags, fires and waving hands have all been used to communicate a message. You’ll see pictures of those in books, history books.
What will our children and grandchildren see? The @ symbol. It’s been known under many names: asperand, arrobase, monkey tail, little mouse, and more.
We call it a ‘reply.’
It has come to be the standard for directing a message to someone directly instead of just shouting out to whomever might be listening. It is direct instead of simply broadcasting.
Twitter might be the application that pushed ‘@’ into the limelight but it’s history goes back to the beginnings of online communications, in forums and chat rooms, long before the ‘web’ existed.
Beyond directing a message to someone, the term reply implies it’s a response and perhaps it’s soliciting a response as well.
The question I leave you with is are you an ‘@’ user or are you just broadcasting?
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