Technosexual

Another recent coinage borne out of the current preoccupation with male stereotyping is the noun and adjective technosexual (also with derivative technosexuality), which refers to a metrosexual man who, as well as being concerned with fashion and appearance, has a strong interest in technology:

'It was bound to happen: the metrosexual has spawned an offshoot, the technosexual… The official definition for technosexual is "a dandyish narcissist in love with not only himself, but also his urban lifestyle and gadgets; a straight man who is in touch with his feminine side but has fondness for electronics such as cell phones, PDAs, computers, software, and the web."'

social jet lag

noun [uncountable]

the feeling of being very tired when you return to work after a holiday, especially because of changes to your sleeping pattern

'… people are left feeling similar effects to jet-lag whereby they struggle to get up in the morning, feel sluggish, find it difficult to fall asleep at night and feel sleepy during the day – a phenomenon dubbed social jet lag.'

THE TELEGRAPH, UK 21ST DECEMBER 2010

It's an experience many of us will be familiar with: you enjoy a break from work, whether it's a holiday or a week or so at home, and then on the dreaded day you return to the office your post-holiday blues are compounded by a general feeling of sluggishness and just not being able 'to get going'. This unanticipated fatigue which assaults us on our return to work now has a new term of reference – it's being called social jet lag.

The root cause of social jet lag is the more relaxed sleeping pattern that many people adopt when on holiday

Workaholics excepted, the majority of people experience a range of negative emotions when they go back to work after a holiday period – after leading a relatively carefree existence, it's no fun toiling away all day, is it? But on top of that general sense of anticlimax, there's often a very real physical sensation of feeling 'not right' – tiredness, lack of energy or the ability to concentrate, irritability, or possibly indigestion or loss of appetite. Observing that these symptoms are very similar to those experienced by people suffering jet lag (a feeling of fatigue experienced by travellers crossing time zones), researchers have coined the expression social jet lag to refer to this phenomenon. Social jet lag is defined as the difference between 'biological time' and 'external requirements', or, in other words, a person's body clock being out of kilter with what the demands of a working day impose.

The root cause of social jet lag is the more relaxed sleeping pattern that many people adopt when on holiday. Conscious that they don't need to be up at the crack of dawn the next day, people luxuriate in the opportunity to lie in, getting up later in the morning and going to bed later in the evening. Faced with going back to work after perhaps as much as two weeks of a different cycle of waking and sleeping, a person's body clock is thrown out of sync when they are forced to get up much earlier in the day. This has a similar effect to the one experienced by flying west across one or more time zones.

Thankfully, like conventional jet lag, social jet lag usually only lasts a couple of days. If you'd like to avoid it completely however, there is a solution, though it's not a particularly appealing one. In order to ensure that your body clock doesn't drift too far from the patterns of a normal working day, the trick is to get up early when you're on holiday – at the time you would normally get up for work or not too much later. Mmmm … like that's really going to happen?!

Background – social jet lag

The term social jet lag was coined in 2006 by researchers at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, Germany, who were investigating the problems caused by differences between a person's internal biological clock and the official clock time that society follows.

A person's internal biological clock is also sometimes referred to as their circadianrhythm, a term based on the Latin words circa('around/about') and dies ('day'). The circadian rhythm can be influenced by what is technically referred to as a zeitgeber (from German, literally 'time giver'), the primary example of which is daylight.

It's one thing to feel under par when you go back to work, but even more frustrating if you fall ill at the start of a holiday period. Noticing that this irritating scenario was all too frequent, in 2001 researchers in the Netherlands coined the term leisure sickness to refer to illness which occurs during weekends and holidays.

sofalizing also sofalising

noun [uncountable]

the activity of using the Internet or other electronic devices to socialize with people from home, rather than meeting them face to face

sofalize also sofalise

verb [intransitive]

sofalizer also sofaliser

noun [countable]

'Millions of us have given up socialising for "sofalising" – talking to pals via phones and the net instead of going out.'

THE SUN 11TH NOVEMBER 2010

'Researchers claim nearly a quarter of us sofalise every night – rather than go to a pub, club or village hall to meet people face to face, we plop down on the sofa … spending hours updating our profiles on social networking sites, chatting online or Tweeting …'

DAILY MAIL 15TH NOVEMBER 2010

'There is even an army of "extreme sofalisers" – the three per cent who spend a staggering 25 hours or more each week talking to friends via electronic devices.'

TELEGRAPH, UK 30TH NOVEMBER 2010

As I write, the UK is currently at the mercy of what is perceived to be an unusually early period of winter snowfall, the first time Brits have seen snow in November for many years. But those of us who are confined to barracks or reluctant to venture out because of adverse weather conditions need not be cut off from our pals. Hey, it's the 21st century and there's no need to actually see them for real, when we can chat and share all other intimate details of our lives at the touch of a keypad. Yes, staying in is the new going out, as socializing in person plays second fiddle to a phenomenon coined sofalizing.

Those of us who prefer to talk to our friends without having to step through the front door have a variety of ways of sofalizingat our disposal

A poll recently conducted in the UK revealed that one in four Brits prefer to do the majority of their communicating from the comfort of their own home. Rather than going out to meet people in person, it seems that there's a growing tendency to sofalize – socialize with friends and family via electronic devices in the home. Instead of long, detailed conversations over a meal or a drink, it appears that many of us prefer the immediate, rapid-fire exchanges we can have through text messaging or social media.

Those of us who prefer to talk to our friends without having to step through the front door, in fact have a variety of ways of sofalizing at our disposal, including texting, e-mail, instant messenger, Skype, Twitter, live chat, status updates or wall posts on Facebook, and the communication networks associated with online gaming and gambling.

There may be many reasons why people are choosing to sofalize rather than socialize – convenience, laziness, time pressure, the expense of going out, or just a desire to avoid lengthy conversations. Whatever the explanation, it seems that the way we are communicating with friends and family is changing, with people increasingly preferring the short, regular and instant exchanges afforded by electronic media, rather than more prolonged, infrequent conversations in person.

Background – sofalizing also sofalize and sofalizer

The term sofalizing is, of course, a blend of the words sofa (=soft, comfortable seat) and socializing, where this describes the activity of spending time with other people socially – in other words, socializing whilst lounging around on a sofa. Following the pattern of the verb socialize, there's also evidence of use of an intransitive verb sofalize. A countable noun sofalizer refers to individuals who maintain friendships in this way. The spelling variant sofalising (and sofalise, sofaliser) is also used, reflecting the spelling conventions of verbs which end in -ise (-ise is the British spelling, -ize is used in both British and US varieties, e.g. realise/realize).

Sofalizing was coined in 2010 by online casino company Yazino, in the context of research commissioned to determine trends in how potential users interact with one another.

studentification

noun [uncountable]

the social and environmental changes caused by very large numbers of students living in particular areas of a town or city

'Students have officially been identified as the new scourge of Britain's towns and cities in a study blaming "studentification" for a string of social evils … They include destroying respectable neighbourhoods by driving out families, triggering rat infestations, causing vandalism and forcing the closure of corner shops in favour of tatty burger bars and cheap off-licences.'

THE OBSERVER JULY 2002

The massive expansion of higher education in Britain over the last decade has given rise to a new piece of terminology. Studentification refers to the process of social, environmental and economic change affected by large numbers of students invading particular areas of the cities and towns in which popular universities are located.

Consistently described as a negative concept … it describes the rapid conversion of shopping and residential areas to suit the
student market

Studentification is consistently viewed as a negative concept, used in the same context as phrases such as 'studentghetto'. It describes the rapid conversion of shopping and residential areas to suit the student market, such as the proliferation of take-away food outlets and cheap alcohol retailers, and the conversion of larger residential properties into so-called 'HMOs' (houses in multiple occupancy). Studentification has social and economic consequences also, illustrated by the rapid decrease in school class sizes as families move out of such areas, and the sharp increase in house prices as landlords create a property boom.

Though originating in Britain, studentification has also recently been adopted in American English to refer to similar problems arising from the over-population of many US 'College Towns'.

Background – studentification

The term studentification was coined by analogy with gentrification, a term used in the 1960s to refer to a middle-class invasion of areas which were formerly thought of as run-down, thereby causing the displacement of many working-class families. Among the first to use the term studentification was Dr Darren Smith of the School of Environment at the University of Brighton, who in 2002 undertook a groundbreaking study of the phenomenon in the Headingley area of Leeds. Smith argues that, with appropriate planning strategies, studentification could in fact have a positive impact in the regeneration of particularly undesirable areas.

Though the verb gentrify exists, there is as yet no substantial evidence for an analogous verb studentify or participle adjective studentified.

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