At the risk of inspiring unresolvable semantic discussions, this post addresses seven Digital Era terms that should probably be replaced and/or removed from the lexicon and suggests both existing and new alternative terminology to use in their place. What other proposed changes would you make?
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I generally try to avoid semantic arguments. Having clarity
about the meaning of various terms, especially those related to emerging
technologies and trends, is no doubt important. But when the terms and their
meanings are evolving, discussions about them can devolve into an infinite loop
of opinions and perceptions that produce neither clarity nor consensus.
That said, there are some uses and misuses that have been bothering
me for a while now. And since we’ve reached a reasonable level of maturity and
stability in a number of areas, I think it’s time to give serious consideration
to making semantic changes that enable us to use more accurate, logical and
fact-based language to refer to elements of the world we live in – and to stop
using passé terms unnecessarily.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on my proposals, as well as
any additional recommendations you may have. Thanks!
- Courtney Shelton Hunt
Going from the general to the specific...
Social Media. Wikipedia lays out a decent denotation of the term, but the connotation still
varies widely. And in my experience, most people equate the term with the
public platforms, assuming the social media universe is solely comprised of
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and their ilk. That assumption not only
misses the point that it's the technologies underlying those platforms that
constitute social media, it also (more importantly) leads them to draw
erroneous conclusions about the potential that social media holds for both them
and the organizations of which they're a part. Plus, for laggards and resisters,
the term evokes a negative visceral reaction that's hard to overcome.
I'm not proposing we do away with the term altogether, I'm proposing that we be more precise about when and how we use it. When referring to public platforms, it's the appropriate term. But when we're talking about the technology more broadly, it's better to use an alternative...
Alternative 1: I prefer the terms social
technology or social technologies, which are
still accurate descriptors but less loaded.
Alternative 2: A more encompassing alternative is social
and digital technologies, which encompasses not just software, but also
hardware (i.e., mobile devices) and services (i.e., cloud-based computing).
Alternative 3: My
personal favorite new term is SMAC, which stands for social
(software), mobile (devices and access), (data) analytics, and cloud
(computing) and reflects the convergence among these technology movements.
Individually, each movement is incredibly powerful. Together, they have the
potential to create dramatic transformations. Over time, they will be virtually
indistinguishable.
Anything 2.0. A few years ago it was important to
append 2.0 to various terms (e.g., Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Government 2.0) to
reflect the fact that social media was causing a shift from static
internet-based sites with one-directional communication to collaborative sites
characterized by multi-directional communication. As social technologies have
become more integrated into digital platforms of all types, as well as the
organizations that leverage those platforms, it's probably no longer necessary
to add the 2.0 qualifier.
Social Business, Social Enterprise, Social Learning. All three terms accurately convey their intent;
unfortunately they all also have distinct meanings that have no specific connections
to social technologies. Both Social Business and Social Enterprise, for
example, along with Social Entrepreneurship, are used to refer to for-profit
businesses that have charitable or socially-oriented missions. And Social Learning is most strongly
connected to social learning theory, which was developed in the late 1970s.
We could argue that we need to find better language to
reflect the phenomena these terms refer to, but I might suggest that we should
simply stop trying to use them. Over time, as social and digital technologies
become more integrated into all aspects of organizational life, the “social”
qualifier will become redundant and unnecessary. This applies not only to the terms above but others like social intranet and social recognition.
The New Normal. Although it will continue to evolve,
the Digital Era is fully established. Even resisters and laggards are impacted
by enhanced forms of communication and collaboration every day, often without even
being aware of it. So referring to the realities created by social and digital
technologies as a "brave new world" or "the new normal"
implies a novelty that no longer exists. It is, simply put, just normal.
In Real Life (IRL). This term originated to
distinguish earth-based interactions from cyber interactions. And even though
resisters continue to use the term to disparage digital communication as being inferior
to face-to-face communication, most folks have come to realize that it’s all real life! More importantly,
rather than creating a false dichotomy between the different ways in which we
know and interact with one another, we are better served by figuring out how to
integrate them in the most efficient and effective ways to achieve our goals
and objectives. This term should go, but we probably still need something to
distinguish the virtual and physical worlds. I’ve been experimenting with using
earthspace.
Yeah, I know - it's kind of awkward. I’d love to hear alternatives…
Microblogging. This
term is still technically accurate, but it now seems antiquated and kind of
clunky, perhaps because the activity has morphed into wall posts, shares, and
status updates on a variety of platforms both public (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn,
G+) and private (e.g., Yammer, SharePoint and a host of social intranet
products). And because Twitter and Tumblr have emerged as the dominant microblogging
platforms, people tend to refer to those sites and their related activities by
their brand names rather than using generic terms. Basically, no one ever says,
“I’m going to microblog about that” or “I’m going to post that to my microblog.”
Now that I think about it, did they ever?
Note: One could
argue we should also get rid of the term “blog,” which no longer literally
reflects what they are or do, but we seem to have good consensus on the connotation
so it’s likely to stick around.
Smartphone. People who own these devices obviously
use them for much more than talking on the phone. More importantly, their other
uses are likely to be much more significant. Given that, it's more accurate to
refer to them as mobile communication devices or a mobile
computing devices – or MCDs for short. Yes,
people may look at you funny and make fun of you at first, but eventually
they'll agree the term is more logical and even a bit more elegant. It's kind
of got a Star Trek vibe... :)
Adopting the term MCD
can also bring an end to the silly-sounding term phablet, which according to the Wikipedia definition is a “portmanteau
of the words phone and tablet.” If distinguishing based on size is important
(which I’m not sure it is), perhaps we can adopt mini-MCD, midi-MCD,
and maxi-MCD
(which would include both full-sized tablets and hybrid devices like Microsoft’s
Surface.
What other changes
would you suggest?
View Courtney Hunt's profile
