Have you ever stopped to contemplate a “sign”? Well, it looks as if you just did. So, what kind of sign did you contemplate? Did you think of a red hexagonal sign? A triangular sign? A flashing neon sign? Or were you hoping for some heavenly intervention on behalf of a Higher Power who is the director of the ebb and flow of your universe? 

We all hate signs but we all need signs. Why do you think that is? My belief on the subject is quite simple, we need signs to offer us direction. The reason we hate signs? We don’t like the direction that sign is taking us.  Or, if we are going, to be honest with ourselves, we don’t like being told what to do, especially by a sign.  

The sign or symbol has played an important part in the development of our written and I would suppose online language too. It’s funny some of our earliest forms of written communication were in the form of pictures. Then came the monks and the printing presses and the renaissance and all of the sudden, picture books were for kids.  

Then comes the Internet. Which has developed its own language and sets of usable symbols that work just as fine and are socially acceptable as the written word. So, in our most advanced form of communication, you know, the Internet, we have reverted back to our most basic written communication skills. 

Why do you think that happened? 

To me, the answer is really simple. It all comes down to typing. People who have taken a structured typing or keyboarding course don’t mind typing out the words. In fact, it’s easier for me to write out the words than it is to hunt and peck on the keyboard and find the symbol, or in the case of the Internet, combine keystrokes to create a symbol.  

But those symbols, in modern terms they would be called emojis, but this is not an article about poops and thumbs and eggplants. This is about those exceptionally mundane signs that your fingers could be very close to right this minute. I am speaking about those symbols you see above the numbers on your computer keyboard and other places in your everyday walk of life that you have been misidentifying.  

Are you ready to learn? Okay, some of these you will already know but you can pretend to learn something if you want to, okay? 

10 Common Signs and Symbols That You’re Constantly Calling by the Wrong Name

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