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Ask Soylent: Which Iconograpy Represents 'Save' in the Modern World?

posted by cmn32480 on Tuesday December 20 2016, @08:37AM   
from the my-floppy-drive-still-works dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Our office recently updated to a new version of the Office Suite, and it still has an icon in the upper-left corner to perform the 'Save' function. Floppy drives have not been in use for years, and many children would not recognize a 3.5 inch floppy disk on sight. Programs have used this icon for years, because we have yet to find a suitable replacement. The CD/DVD can no longer represent saving, because they have come and gone. Even moving to the more abstract Piggy Bank icon would not work, because they are seldom used in the modern age. A USB Key icon may represent saving in some form, but the may not be around much longer if another medium gains favor. Does this mean that the venerable 3.5 inch Floppy will represent saving information to future generations, or should it be replaced by a different symbol?

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Original Submission

• Linguistics (Score: 4, Insightful) by gringer on Tuesday December 20 2016, @09:42AM

  by gringer (962) on Tuesday December 20 2016, @09:42AM (#443658)

  We don't stop using words, letters, or characters because most people have forgotten their etymology. I don't think we should stop using icons as a representation of a concept because the thing the icon was derived from is obsolete.

  .... I'm pretty sure the chinese symbol for 'car' isn't a teardrop shape with wheels.

  --
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