Is it now the norm to make the term WiFi synonymous with the term cellular/mobile data (or 4g/5g)
They are not the same thing.
Is this like when people call tablets ipads? Or call vacuums hoovers/dysons.
Well, that sort of highlights my issue and why i assume they meant mobile data. If they are, in the joke, connected to WiFi, then they wouldn’t be surprised by the signal strength. Because they are near a router and therfore the signal is good enough to use. You aren’t typically able to connect to WiFi if the signal is below -70 -80 decibels.
I think its fairly clear that they meant mobile data as this is something you would be surprised to still have if you were lost in a cave.
Not that i wouldn’t be surprised to find WiFi down there, just that i wouldn’t be surprised by the strength of the WiFi signal if i was standing close enough to a router to see the SSID.
I think they specifically mean Wi-Fi, not confusing it with cellular.
I would be surprised too if I went into a cave and suddenly my phone is connected to Wi-Fi. Where are the access points? Who is running internet all the way out here? I don’t see any telco boxes or signs of a human presence. Why do the speeds get faster the farther I go? Why did my phone connect to some random network when I specifically told it not to do that? It would be even weirder if it’s WPA3 protected or something because I obviously don’t have the password for the cave Wi-Fi
I’d say these examples are different, more like Kleenex where brand names become the common term. This is more like when parents used to buy a Wii game for your “playbox station”.
I know people who don’t know what an Ethernet cable is.
Internet = wifi / mobile data. And that’s it as far as they are concerned
Routers, modems, switches, bandwidth, Ethernet etc. That’s all just mysterious mumbo jumbo nerd shit. They only know that wifi = the symbol on their phone and that it makes their apps load. It’s crazy.
There is a term, that I am too lazy to search, that when a brand or technology is so widespread or used, that the name of the brand or technology becomes the word used to describe anything that ressemble that brand or technology.
Wi-Fi and iPads are definitely some of those.
