the.com/buffering
the spinning wheel of shame that turns your movie night into a staring contest.
means a video pauses to download more data than your connection can deliver in real time.
from from computer science buffer, a temporary memory holding zone, borrowed since the 1980s for anything stockpiled before use, then hijacked by streaming as the universal symbol of internet betrayal.
pre-internet buffermeant railway shock absorbers, not data delays
peak rage era2000s dial-up made buffering a household curse word
human bufferingawkward pauses in speech got the same nickname