Removed some vague, loaded phrases from the site
No new article in this update. What I did do is go through the site and remove certain vague, loaded terms from the articles. As far as I can tell, these terms are gone:
-Introvert/Extrovert
-Geek
-Nerd
They’re still there in the odd spot, mostly to describe a label other people might use. I’m not using them any more myself though. For one, no one can really agree on what these terms mean any more. The words all encompass a mix of traits, strengths, and weaknesses. But everyone has a different idea of what particular things should and shouldn’t be in their definitions. It’s way too vague and murky for me.
I can try using them as a succinct way to describe something, but other people may not interpret the term in the way I intended. I may as well write the three specific words I want to talk about, instead of using something like ‘introvert’ and hoping the reader knows what I meant to say.
Check out these urbandictionary.com definitions for geek and nerd. The entries are all over the place and the terms are almost effectively meaningless. And look how everyone wants to redefine the term in a way that doesn’t hurt their ego. The same with ‘introvert’. Pretty much every online discussion I’ve read that uses the word will digress into a debate of what the term “really” means before long.
Also, some people are defensive and sensitive about having these terms applied to them. They don’t want to be called something at all, or they get annoyed if you use the term in the “wrong” way (i.e., with a negative connotation). It’s just easier not to use these words any more and avoid all that.
It also forces me to be more precise with what I want to say myself. As I was editing out all my uses of the terms, I was surprised at how haphazardly I threw them around. One sentence I’d use ‘geek’ to mean one thing, the next I’d use it to imply something totally different.
One loaded word I kept in was “weird”. I’ve gotten emails saying, “There’s nothing wrong with being weird. Weird people have accomplished…” In my experience though, there’s a definite downside to being weird in a certain way. Being artsy and creative is one thing, but being strange, inappropriate, and out of touch with the world is another. I’m fine with the good stuff, but not with the bad. If someone can come up with a term that describes just the bad aspects of weirdness though, I’ll happily use that instead.
January 11, 2008
