One thing I have noticed over the last 4-6 years, and I guess you have too, is the word Tech being bounced around a lot more than it used to.
Tech was never used to describe a phone or a home computer even, but mostly used in the IT industry, a "Technie" was someone who provided 3rd level or beyond or worked in a data centre doing something like infrastructure support, either through the data network or for various hardware platforms; mostly not point and click Microsoft "Engineers" no marks.
Roll on 6 years and now the interweb is awash with so called "Techies" that don't really fit into any of the a fore mentioned categories, yet they blog away (some even paid to do so, more on that shortly) with the contempt to use the word "Techie" or "Tech" - I'm very sorry but I rarely use that word here on this blog, for the reason that a phone just isnt Tech, or a tablet or anything handheld or the user that owns them. Now you could argue that installing a ROM or rooting a bootloader is technical, maybe it is but that's just one process, which is very well documented on the web anyway. So any idiot can fire up YouTube and copy the commands / process with minimal risk, even if they do mess things up the worst case is they mess up a handset costing £600. Hardly a big deal is it ? When a proper "Techie" has a blue chips company by the balls over the course of a hard weekend of highly risky process, which can be sued for millions of £££ if it goes wrong, the knowledge he / she has to have is what I call Technical.
Channel 5's The Gadget Show is a classic example of watering down a word to suit the masses of finger swipers who think that finding the WiFi button on a Samsung Android Camera is an epic win. Please just stop already.
Then we get onto the bloggers who are paid to blog, this really gets my goat. Here is why, no its not jealousy, I don't want to be paid to blog. This blog is a side line to my larger career - which involves over 25yrs of IT from all sectors, clients, businesses (mostly in the enterprise) and all sorts of positions from freelance consulting to Subject Matter Expert. So why would I want to be paid to pick up a gadget and tell all about it of give my views on a sector which is fast paced. Well I don't want to, I want to keep IHAG as impartial as they come. Which makes the views cast here not subject to a corporate kick in the face if I dare to say the Sony Z1 does actually have crappy battery life when the screen is being used.
When money is involved credibility and impartial views are out the window, just pick up any newspaper that is part funded by some political party to get the gist.
Also throw in the debacle last week of many bloggers "re-blogging" an eveleaks tweet all over the Googleverse that left many-a-blogger with egg on their faces, because the information that was 3rd hand was actually complete bollocks to begin with.
I have tried to take this up with a few fellow bloggers which I have discovered do actually receive a payment for their reviews of a said item, many of them decided to throw the old - "Ah your spamming me" or "You are wrong because xyz" when discussing an item they just blogged about. Sure they can get paid and defend their views, that's their right to do so but their blog and subsequent reviews are just as phoney as the word "Tech".
Rant over !