Where did this one come from?
Content – This word just seems insufficient and ambiguous (it can be a noun or adjective). It’s so clinical and sterile. Ok, so it’s in the same category as ‘media’, but ‘media’ is a word I happen to like, is attached to nice things,and is soft and round. Kontent is not really a Kingly word, isn’t a word that is used in any regular context outside of some industry-speak, and isn’t really something that lends itself to writing, such as these not so smooth phrases: ‘download content to phone’ (yes, quite happy) or ‘manage your contents’ (my bowels?) or ‘user generated content’ (sounds like a disease). I think it’s just our own laziness, to lump so much into this word.
You can review all my previous ‘Tired Words’ here on this page.
Oh boy, that word sends me into a blind fit of unstoppable rage. I can’t even utter it. It has been so overused in the industry that here in Brazil “conteúdo” is leaking into consumer communication, can you believe it? “Subscribe to UOL! UOL has the best content on the web!” “Send BLAH to 5555 to download this content!”. And worse, I have seen it being used in plural, then it makes absolutely no sense – “1 conteúdo – 2 conteúdos”!
Here’s some user generated content. “User generated” in more ways than one.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/12/20/wikipedia_aphrodites_araldite/