Technology Terminology

If you're a user of Gmail, I invite you to visit the 'Trash' folder of your account and view the origin of this screenshot. I'm willing to bet that most people don't see their Trash on a regular basis, as one of the selling points (or giving-away-free points) of Gmail is the mass storage space that supports the 'Archive' feature which lets people move their messages out of their Inbox without worrying about where it needs to be filed.

If you delete a message from your Inbox it goes to the Trash. If you delete a message from the Trash... does it return to the Trash? Or is there a secondary Trash Can? We have grown accustom to the Empty verb that is associated with the Trash Can metaphor. Have you ever emptied only part of your kitchen refuse bin? If you're like me, sometimes you set aside garbage—like that over-sized pizza box that's too awkward to fit in your tiny trash can— so as to throw it away individually.

So how does Google approach the breakdown of the Trash Can metaphor in the case of singularly removing messages? 'Delete Forever.' Pictured above, this button allows users to select individual messages to remove from their mailbox Trash without deleting everything. Yet this seemingly innocuous button carries a significant amount of gravity. Computer users delete files, discard messages, and empty Recycle Bins without ever being faced with the kind of linguistic finality that is forever. I have found that this term causes me to reconsider that which comes so naturally. Let 'Delete Forever' exemplify the interface terminology we take for granted that shapes our technological interactions.