Writers, musicians, artists — stop calling your work ‘content,’ FFS

mistercharlie

I wrote an essay about something that’s been bugging me for a while; artists calling their work ‘content.’

To me this seems like our work is just an interchangeable unit for somebody else to package and sell. I don’t “produce content,”. I make/play music, or write songs.

I’m interested to know what you folks think about it:

https://straightnofilter.com/stop-content/

(I was going to make the url be ‘/fuck-content/,” but I thought that might screw up things with search )

zpxlng

Agree 200%; been on that same soapbox for years! Same for people calling themselves 'consumers', etc. You're voluntarily adopting the terminology that capitalists use when they DON'T want to think of you as people. You are a person, you are an artist, you are not a function in someone else's program.

I'm an artist, not a content creator. You call me what you like, but I don't have to play along.

mistercharlie

@zpxlng 👍

supadom

Absolutely freaking right. Content is a shitty capitalist word that unless one is talking about what’s in their pocket, should be banned.

Jocphone

Writers - stop telling us what words to use describe our own 'stuff' FFFS!

Ha ha, sorry couldn't resist.

AudioGus

Heh, I recall when they first announced the iPad I said at work I will keep my eye on them for when they get stylus support for drawing and painting and a biz dev guy groaned and rolled his eyes ‘It’s designed for consuming content not producing content.’ Such vision!

u0421793

@AudioGus said:
Heh, I recall when they first announced the iPad I said at work I will keep my eye on them for when they get stylus support for drawing and painting and a biz dev guy groaned and rolled his eyes ‘It’s designed for consuming content not producing content.’ Such vision!

Which brings us to… “Consumers, stop calling the act of consuming content ‘consumption’!”

AudioGus

@u0421793 said:

@AudioGus said:
Heh, I recall when they first announced the iPad I said at work I will keep my eye on them for when they get stylus support for drawing and painting and a biz dev guy groaned and rolled his eyes ‘It’s designed for consuming content not producing content.’ Such vision!

Which brings us to… “Consumers, stop calling the act of consuming content ‘consumption’!”

Oh yah that conversation was a fractal gumbo of ‘get dah fuk outta here!’

lovadamusic

What's this world coming to?

I call my work insignificant digital data. IDD.

mrufino1

Right on. Although in many cases “content” is clearly what is being produced for masses to consume.

jolico

Some people have a really high opinion about the content that they produce.

@lovadamusic said:
What's this world coming to?

I call my work insignificant digital data. IDD.

CracklePot

@jolico said:
Some people have a really high opinion about the content that they produce.

@lovadamusic said:
What's this world coming to?

I call my work insignificant digital data. IDD.

They think their shit don’t stink.
They think their shit is THE shit.

audio_DT

@mistercharlie said:
I wrote an essay about something that’s been bugging me for a while; artists calling their work ‘content.’

To me this seems like our work is just an interchangeable unit for somebody else to package and sell. I don’t “produce content,”. I make/play music, or write songs.

I’m interested to know what you folks think about it:

https://straightnofilter.com/stop-content/

(I was going to make the url be ‘/fuck-content/,” but I thought that might screw up things with search )

Nice content. Ha, I meant article. Yes, I couldn’t agree more. Anything that reproduces the language of Capital, effectively reducing the value of anything to its exchange-value and not its use-value (one for the Marxist out there) is a bad move, in my opinion.

SNystrom

In a related note, I truly hate when TV chefs create some fancy dish, delicately place it on a serving plate and proudly announce:

"And here is the finished product!"

gusgranite

I am very content with this content. 😎

(I agree with the argument in the essay. Good work 👍)

Toastedghost

@zpxlng said:
Agree 200%; been on that same soapbox for years! Same for people calling themselves 'consumers', etc. You're voluntarily adopting the terminology that capitalists use when they DON'T want to think of you as people. You are a person, you are an artist, you are not a function in someone else's program.

I'm an artist, not a content creator. You call me what you like, but I don't have to play along.

I think the terminolgy filters down from the crazy concept that calls insurance a product. We might produce a piece of music but then let it be called a creation.

Gavinski

@mistercharlie ugh, absolutely agree. 'I love your content', yuck, 🤮. I feel that this kind of corporate language has infiltrated American culture much more than British, by the way. Despite having voted in a Conservative government for the past ten or so years, the UK seems to have a healthy scepticism about this kind of thing. Just a generalisation of course, and there are plenty of exceptions.

AudioGus

@lovadamusic said:
What's this world coming to?

I call my work insignificant digital data. IDD.

01010111 01101111 01110010 01100100

jolico

I only create “consumables” 😆

CracklePot

@Gavinski said:
@mistercharlie ugh, absolutely agree. 'I love your content', yuck, 🤮. I feel that this kind of corporate language has infiltrated American culture much more than British, by the way. Despite having voted in a Conservative government for the past ten or so years, the UK seems to have a healthy scepticism about this kind of thing. Just a generalisation of course, and there are plenty of exceptions.

It is a bit of a niggle, yeah.
😉

royor

Tomayto, Tomahto.. if your “stuff” catches my eye or ear, I could give 2 shits what it’s called.. I’ll like it for what it is.. creative self expression..

CracklePot

It isn’t the random, various words that are the problem.
It is the whole English language that is the problem.

We should all abandon English and switch to Sanskrit.
😏

u0421793

Not all tents are dishonest, though

kinkujin

ok ok, I'll go back to calling it "my shit".

wim

@CracklePot said:
It isn’t the random, various words that are the problem.
It is the whole English language that is the problem.

This.

We should all abandon English and switch to Sanskrit.
😏

What ever happened to Esperanto?

[edit] Oh. Maybe I'm in trouble now.

From Wikipedia
Gender-neutrality
See also: Gender reform in Esperanto

Esperanto is frequently accused of being inherently sexist, because the default form of some nouns is masculine while a derived form is used for the feminine, which is said to retain traces of the male-dominated society of late 19th-century Europe of which Esperanto is a product. There are a couple dozen masculine nouns, primarily titles and kin terms, such as sinjoro "Mr, sir" vs. sinjorino "Mrs, ma'am" and patro "father" vs. patrino "mother". In addition, gender-neutral nouns are often assumed to be male unless explicitly made female, such as doktoro, a PhD doctor (male or unspecified) versus doktorino, a female PhD. This is analogous to the situation with the English suffix -ess, as in baron/baroness, waiter/waitress etc. Esperanto pronouns are similar. As in English, li "he" may be used generically, whereas ŝi "she" is always female.[171]

SpartanClownTide

🤣 May contain nuts

Will

@lovadamusic said:
What's this world coming to?

I call my work insignificant digital data. IDD.

Ya!

“What style of music do you make?”

“IDD” - me from now on.

wim

[double post]

Will

It’s an insidious word indeed. It’s not just a generic Capitalism word. It’s specifically about the commodification of the work. People who run marketplaces (App Store, YouTube via ads, etc) stand to make the most of they can commodify the items they rely on to make money.

Oldie but goodie: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/06/12/strategy-letter-v/

And someone took that much further here: https://www.gwern.net/Complement#generalizing

Lady_App_titude

And enough with “curated music” already!

haulin_notes

@u0421793 said:

@AudioGus said:
Heh, I recall when they first announced the iPad I said at work I will keep my eye on them for when they get stylus support for drawing and painting and a biz dev guy groaned and rolled his eyes ‘It’s designed for consuming content not producing content.’ Such vision!

Which brings us to… “Consumers, stop calling the act of consuming content ‘consumption’!”

How about “prosumer”, lol. (Don’t mean to be presumptuous)

OT: the word that bugs me is “stunning”. Who wants to be stunned? Sounds painful and dominating. “That’s some stunning content! Jaw dropping!” 🤣