I may be young, but can anyone really recall when a Kleenex was a tissue, a Band-Aid was a bandage, and Saran Wrap was plastic wrap or cellophane?

I’m sure you’re wondering where this thought originated. It all started when I visited my family over the holidays, and I told my sister to “Google” directions. My mother asked why I said “Google,” rather than simply tell my sister to look up directions. This continued into a slightly heated argument on the topic.

This trend of turning a brand name into a general name for a product or action is known as genericide (this has been around long before Google and Twitter). And, as some of you may already know, the word “Google” was declared a verb in 2006 by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.  After some thought and discussion, I came up with many other brand terms I use as a noun or verb in my everyday vocabulary.

As I’ve already explained, I am guilty of “Googling” or telling others to “Google it.” When someone asks me what I’m doing on social site Facebook, my typical response is, “I’m Facebooking.” Also, I don’t just record my TV shows, I “DVR” them. Now, with the growing popularity of social networks, a “tweet” doesn’t just refer to a bird sound, but also the act of creating a post on Twitter.

The past decade brought Googling, Facebooking, DVRing and, most recently, the ever-popular tweeting. While not all these terms have been officially coined as verbs or nouns, we still hear them in everyday conversation. I can hardly wait to see what new terminology the next decade produces.