The War on Content*

*AKA, my personal war on/gentle fist shaking at the word ‘content’.

Two out of three of my ‘grown-up’ job titles include the word content, and I hate it. 

For starters, the word ‘content’ is vague as anything. 

How many times have I had to say, yes, I work in content, but not that kind of content? 

How many times have I noticed a freelance job listing looking for ‘content experts’, only to see they’re looking for video makers, graphic designers, or podcast producers rather than writers? 

How many times have I tried to explain content marketing to a table of blank faces?

Anything can fall into the bucket of ‘content’, and this, to my mind, is not a good thing. Content means nothing and everything, all at the same time. 

It wastes time and causes confusion – but the problem runs deeper than that. 

What I dislike most about the word content is how the vagueness of the word detracts from the work itself. 

And that’s down to how we use it, too:

“We need some content to promote xyz.” 

“I’m behind on my content, I need to get something up this week.” 

I’m noticing that we use ‘content’ as a catch-all word for ‘digital stuff’. 

And when we start to think about content as ‘some digital stuff’, we’re in trouble. 

We clog our already saturated digital space with work created from the feeling we need to ‘get something out’, and become detached from what that work is trying to do.

There’s a popular quote doing the rounds at the moment in reference to AI: 

“Why should I bother reading something that someone couldn’t be bothered to write?” 

But this issue precedes AI by a long shot. 

It’s a (perceived) velocity problem. 

It’s a decline in general creativity problem.

It’s a done-is-better-than-perfect problem.  

And the word ‘content’ might not be the cause of this issue, but how people toss it around is certainly a symptom. 

As for the cure? I think we’re starting to see the shift. A push to create less, but to create better. More purposefully. 

How we talk about our work is all part of how we think about it – and how stakeholders perceive it. 

Are you ‘getting a blog out’, or are you researching a guide? 

Writing up a teardown? 

Collaborating on a thought leadership interview? 

Ghostwriting an opinion piece from your founder?

Carrying out original research? 

Formalising a framework? 

Good things happen (and good things are written) when we get specific and purposeful.