It's 1999 and the world is on the brink of a new millennium. Fear runs riot with Y2K; an inherent and catastrophic failure that will occur in all electronic devices when the clocks turn back to 00:00 01/01/00. Planes will fall from the sky; all nuclear weapons will launch and detonate; and, perhaps worse of all, our TiVo boxes will delete the entire first season of The Sopranos. 

Of course, none of this happened. Many did think the world was ending because of their hangover but come January 1st, 2000  everything was in relative order. Little did people know however that the true age of digital was about to herald in. 

The digital revolution has changed the world and the way people interact with one another. Sharing golfing tips with a man from Kuala Lumpur while watching a how-to video on julienning a carrot is simple to do. No one would batter an eyelid at such an exploit (at least not without Snapchatting the whole episode first). 

Social media facilitates this with ease. In 1999, unless you were willing to remortgage to pay that month's phone bill, this was not so clearcut.

With these changes to our way of life, our actual language has adapted with the development and inclusion of lots of new words. And they are coming at some rate! Below we have listed 16 words that are commonplace today, but were completely unheard of as short as 16 years ago.

Social media: (n.) Websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking

Teachers and parents should play an important role in encouraging students to take their online reputations seriously.

Some employers actually track down the social media footprints of applicants, so if students are behaving inappropriately online, they could jeopardise their job prospects.

In order to help students make smarter choices online, teachers and parents should read up on reputation, resumes and video interviews in the digital age - and then they should make sure that the students within their spheres of influence understand what’s at stake. 

Online Reputation Matters

Three-quarters of recruiters are more than willing to go online to research job candidates, and seven in 10 have rejected candidates based on what they discovered online. So it’s important that students who are working towards their degrees know that their online reputations count for a lot.

Reputation-Building Tips

LinkedIn, an online social media site for professionals, is a must for students looking to build a solid online reputation. They can showcase their resume and look for work opportunities -- particularly since 89% of recruiters have hired someone through LinkedIn.

Profiles 101

Personal profiles should be kept personal. In other words, they should be made available only to select people, they should not contain inappropriate content and they should not have usernames that are the same as the account holders’ real names. For professional profiles, students should include professional photos, use their real names as their username and stick to posting only industry-specific content.

Video Resume

In the digital age, it pays to have a video resume. Students should be encouraged to take advantage of video resumes to differentiate themselves from the majority of people who still do resumes the 'old fashioned way'.

When starting off on YouTube and taking your first steps you may only have one or two videos. 

As time goes by and you find yourself uploading more and more videos you will soon reach the point where your YouTube channel looks something like this to the public...