I have a deep, simmering hatred for the word “content”.
In 2023, I’m guessing we’ve all heard this word. But I’ll offer a brief, imperfect, human-generated definition: “Content” is what makes up the internet.
Medium articles, instagram memes, SEO pages about the best app developer services in India, TikToks, your aunt’s political Facebook posts — these are all ‘content’.
Some of that stuff can be pretty good — so why do I hate this word? Because ‘content’ is a generic, artless term.
If you work as a ‘content writer’ (as I have in the past), chances are, you don’t really know, understand, or care about the topic you’re writing on. I was writing articles about photographing grizzly bears. Have I seen a grizzly bear in real life? Sure. Did I get a photo? Nope. Do I have a background in wildlife biology? No. Did I offer anything personal to the topic besides SEO skills? Absolutely not.
“Content” is made to fit in a box, usually someone else’s box. A social media platform’s insatiable scroll, or a business’s need for a few paragraphs on an ‘About Us’ section: content is subservient to the needs of its form. Content does not justify itself. Content does not offer a thesis. Content does not change you.
