Heard it. Don’t like it. Can’t get rid of it.
Consumer – This is a catch-all for the folks who fork over their dear money for something we have made.* All too often it is a term do describe some sort of passive consumption of media. I try hard to use some other term, such as ‘user’ or ‘people’ or ‘subscribers’ or something like that. It’s not easy. But, thinking of the way folks actually use the web, so many folks are actually lurking and reading and watching and listening, and so few actually creating or participating (read more here, via JP). Hence, I think ‘consumer’ just might be sufficient.
You can review all my previous ‘Tired Words’ here on this page.
*A related tired word: ‘end-user’. Ugh.
So what will be it’s replacement? It’s all semantics really, we know what you’re talking about.
The thing is, I think, 90% of people in the Internet age will remain as passive consumers*. And they can be safely called as consumers. But if the people who build Internet-related stuff have a mindset of providing stuff for consumers, and forget the 1-10% of the active people, the resulting thingy will not be competitive. Not anymore.
(* = well, consuming information is an oxymoron, but I digress….)
stefan,
tommi is right. i think the folks whining about the word (i.e. me and other creators) forget that bulk of the readers are ‘consumers’.
so, no replacement for the majority.
creators (1/100), critics (9/100), consumers (90/100).
tchau