Here’s a short collection of examples of flagrant misuses of the term synchronicity. They range from hilarious to pathetic. I would say that it’s no coincidence if we found out these writers never read Carl Jung, or anything about Jung’s works, or maybe even never heard of the famed psychotherapist who coined the term they are misusing.
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“Synchronicity is a wonderful thing – well certainly if you’re an IT guy in charge of a system that has handheld devices, laptops and desktops reading and writing to your server. In that kind of environment, software versions that aren’t synched up can mean one device isn’t patched to be protected against a particular virus, and you find a trojan’s found it’s way in via the weakest link.”
– from intisarabioto.com
It is a wonderful thing, but I’m sure these IT guys are finding any meaningful coincidences in their handheld devices, etc.
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“Running with no interruption, cars moved by some force bigger than me to keep me moving. Synchronicity. Normally, I love it. Not so much while running….At mile three, I was hating synchronicity and all its perfection. And in my hatred, I was able to see through the false sense of orderliness it builds around us. And what I saw was chaos.”
–From a blog called Wandering Through the Words
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Runners, it seems, are competing with techies for strange uses of synchronicity.
“Another 50 feet puts us in front of the first drink stop. Naturally, we’re their first customers because the real runners have yet to make it up Snake Hill. At this point my dear friend is becoming rather exasperated with my slow pace, although I assure her I’m just getting into my rhythm. We’ve just reached a perfect walking synchronicity when shouts alert us to the first runner.”
Let’s see, that would be a perfect walking meaningful coincidence. Hmm. Okay.
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I think the next one is my favorite.
“Carr’s arrival — and his Houston Texans draft-bust days — serves as a painful reminder about what quarterbacks (and power-running, vertical-passing offenses) need to succeed. That boils down to having a wall of 300-pound behemoths who can block with wonderful knee-brace synchronicity.”
–from the San Jose Mercury News 3/12/2010
Yikes, some sports writes are masters of malapropisms. Put that knee-brace synchronicity into your vertical offense and see how far that gets you down the field!
Finally…click to read it, and see if you can figure it out. If you do, tell us.
Okay, JamaG…I'll try that right now. Yesterday, within a short space of time two people sent me e-mails about daffodils.
One, on Facebook chat, said she was enjoying the daffodils growing in her yard. The other, in an e-mail, a few minutes earlier, said that the national flower of Wales is the daffodil and complained there are none to be seen because of the continuing wintry weather.
Wow!
R
Rob, a simple "Wow…." would prevent such mix-ups. (:
Now after making fun of people who misuse the word synchronicity to describe synchronous action, I have to admit that I've done the opposite. I've said on numerous occasions: "Hey, that's synchronous," when I meant to say, "Hey, that's a synchronicity."
Oops! -R
Great post! The biggest surprise was that those who wrote the non-click examples could spell *any* word longer than two syllables, so I must applaud them for the use of "synchronicity" (albeit incorrectly). That said, the examples are hilarious! Thanks!
As for the click-read thingie, in the best techie-speak I can muster: I HAVE NO CLUE. (Am I the only one who finds it odd that Google can't translate this page?)
Thanks, Joseph.
Sansego, yes there is confusion between synchronicity (meaningful coincidence) and synchronous (moving or operating in unison).
So it's no coincidence that synchronized swimmers move in the same pattern. In other words, they're not demonstrating synchronicity.
The noun form of synchronous is synchronousness–not synchronicity.
Let's see one of those techies or sports writers try that tongue twister.
[From Late Latin synchronus, from Greek sunkhronos : sun-, syn- + khronos, time.]
Thanks for the clarification!
I think some people think synchronicity means "well timed" or "in harmony." This appears to be the case with the few examples you've mentioned. What may have contributed to the misunderstanding of the word is the 90s boy band "NSYNC." They were named that because its the first initials of each guy's name, as well as their ability to sing "in sync" with each other.
I also remember the movie poster for "Back to the Future II" which had the tag line: "Synchronize your watches."
Very well spoken, love the way you have it all displayed in fashion you have created. Very well laid out and you sure understand your material.
Regards
Joseph F. Botelho
fabulous examples of NOT synchronicity! geeeee! and you know, the word really is used incorrectly nearly every day in every way conceivable – poor jung – rolling each time, i'm sure! – and then the click it and read it thing – well, clicked it and read it and felt as if i had entered some sort of psychedelic lab gone awry! kept waiting for someone to pop out of the screen with a sugar cube in their hand!
neat post!
I've mentioned this website here more than once: 2020.global.gaiaspace.org. They know exactly the meaning of the word synchronicity. There is a tool (visible only by logged in users – to answer your question asked a few days ago, they can leave comments) called synchronicity. It's supposed to help people find useful people and ideas. It obviously doesn't rely on coincidences, but it's definitely inspired by Jung.