It's been validating to discover so many other people loathe the word "moist". It is one of those words that create a toe-curling reaction among many of us. Ugh. But there is a commonly-used word that makes me squirm almost as much - almost as much as the word "panties" - and that is the innocent-sounding word "content". And I don't like seeing it used on Steemit. Let me explain why.
I hate the term "content" to describe writing. Hate, hate, hate, with a deep, red-hot hate. I hate it so much that if it was a food and I had to eat it, it would taste like this.
I wish I would stop putting ugly gross pictures of myself online :)
I guess this comes from my own weird idiosyncracies. I have tried to be a content writer, because that is where all the money is because the publishing and media industries are dying, and because we live in a corporatocracy, and the internet has been taken over by corporations. And so 90% of writers and journalists are now writing copy for Lockheed Martin and Glaxo Smith Kline when they really should be free to use their talents being journalists or poets or writing essays that don't necessarily go anywhere or make obvious political points but which have life in them and which may be hard to summarise but they help people get a sense of the times in which they live and what it means to be human.
Of course, I'm being a bit ... is facetious the right word? Not all writers are forced to write for arms manufacturers. Some write for the dwindling magazine and literary mag market, or for online sites. But that is not content writing; it's journalism or writing or essaying and the content is the contents.
Whereas content writing is writing stuff for company or organisational websites. It's not a bad thing, although it's restrictive and I'm sure for some writers who have a passion to trade in ideas but who have families and mortgages it's killed their souls.
And so when I see people talk about writing content on Steemit, it makes my toes curl. Because there are no companies on here trying to sell us their shit and please God don't tell me they ever will be on here. What I do see on here are people who are their right size. They haven't been reduced by Facebook into categories. They have not been reduced into paranoia by waiting for the next whack to come in the comments from some dick who is struggling in these trying times and can't resist taking some of their pain out on someone they don't even know. What I do see are lots of creative people who are sharing their stories and their art and their travels and their lives without having some need to sell you a product somewhere. And some are even making some money from it.
The whole concept of "content writing" is writing as a product, as a means to an end that is always about convincing other people to buy something they probably don't need. I think this is why I've just never been able to bring myself to get into it. I don't want to convince people to buy more shit. I don't want to convince people to take any kind of action at all, to be honest. I don't give much of a shit for the you-must-have-a-takeaway style of writing. It feels forced and limited. It breaks complex life up into a series of 6 Steps to Whatever which are maybe even written by someone who hasn't mastered step 3 themselves. It's just so much fake and reductionist and boring.
Pic CC-by-SA Who doesn't love a knitted poo?
And sure there are articles like that on here, but they're not gonna be pieces many people will bother reading. Not when people are free to write from their own interests and joys and pleasures. And that's not content, then, it's just writing and blogging without a middleman.
Steemit doesn't have ads. And so nor should it have content. If that term was wiped from this space ... well, then I'd be quite content :)