Forgotten by now.
Buzzwords in popular culture go through a predictable cycle; firstly, they are introduced to describe a new and interesting phenomenon, then quickly become so overused that the original definition is completely obscured. 2016 has been a particularly offensive year for the appropriation of vocabulary. Here at SLEEK, we have rounded up seven of the worst.
THE BUZZWORDS THAT NEED TO GO
1. Binary
The word “binary” used to be a way of describing a way of thinking in either/or terms, such as black/white, man/woman, right/wrong. The criticism of this thinking was highly important in academia and arts, and most especially gender studies, but now what is considered to be a binary equivalence has shifted to the point of absurdity.
Take this from I-D Vice: “You don’t have to be “It’ll be okay” Guy. You can be “I did everything I could” Woman or “I saw the effects of my activism first hand!” Non binary.”
What is non-binary in this context? It doesn’t make any sense.
2. Selfie
A selfie is a self-portrait taken by a camera or camera-phone. This is what made it a phenomenon. However, now nearly every picture of someone is referred to as a selfie. Check this from The Daily Mail:
“Mariah Carey has landed herself in a bind with her loyal fans after she allegedly photoshopped a saucy selfie on her social media on Thursday.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNN4JSIhoE0/?taken-by=mariahcarey&hl=en
Great reporting, The Daily Mail, yet here she is evidently not holding a camera. This is just a photo. Get it right.
3. Curation
Once upon a time, curating was for art galleries and exhibitions. Now it seems you can ‘curate’ Spotify playlists, food recipes and even biking routes. What is hard for people to remember is this isn’t ‘curating’ so much as choosing stuff. I wouldn’t claim to ‘curate’ this list. I made a list. Now Facebook, the peddler of misinformation, believes they can get into the game too:
“created content will be slipped into users’ News Feed by Facebook curators, ultimately giving these content a larger reach.”
Going from Museums to social media, it seems that the term curation has gone from high quality to sponsored content.
4. Alt-Right
Alt-right is a clever word. What it ingeniously does is takes a bunch of white supremacists and makes them sound edgy. Sounds much better than Nazis right? The Evening Standard is the worst offender in this egregious profile, focusing on their fashion rather than their odious politics:
“For boys there is a haircut — a short back and sides but long on top (nicknamed “the fascie”) and three outfits: a dark suit, a Farage-esque heritage look or a skinhead with Eighties jacket and light-wash jeans.”
But they are not leading a new fashion trend. They are fascists. The term alt-right only works to obscure that reality.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNuSnJyBt82/?taken-by=milo.yiannopoulos&hl=en
5. Post-Truth
Post-truth is one of those buzzwords people love bandying about if they watched Hyper-Normalisation and read too many Guardian articles. But the problem with the term is that post-truth (and its counterpart “fake news”) is a mask for a much more insidious trend: the rise of propaganda. Politicians aren’t post-truth. They know the truth. They are lying because they are authoritarians and that is what authoritarians do. The Independent is the biggest rider of the hyperbole train here, leading a headline with:
“We’ve entered a post-truth world – there’s no going back now’
The Independent must have a crystal ball I don’t know about.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BN4hRxNhLLM/?tagged=posttruth&hl=en
6. Hygge
Trending this year as a specifically Danish word that refers to a vague feeling of warmth and cosiness, it has now been used to promote everything from woolly socks to scented candles. What went from a style and philosophy of living soon became another marketing trend to sell Christmas presents. Adding a more sinister element is the way the far-right have co-opted this term to promote Danish Nationalism, leader of the Danish National Party Pia Kjærsgaard stating in an interview that:
“I cannot thrive and work in offices that aren’t hyggelig”
Looks like in 2016, we can’t have nice things.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BHH9yvTjSHa/?tagged=hyggeshop&hl=en
7. Disruptive
Now the jacking of this word was annoying from the off. From its original definition as “causing or tending to cause disruption” it is now used by every start-up in the world as a means to signify that they are cool and edgy and not like the others when they definitely are. Whilst it has been around for a long time, in the year of our lord 2016, the term is now so omnipresent that it has now entered the fashion world to describe any business with a new angle:
“Rent the Runway is a disruptive model because, prior to its existence, there was no market for rentable designer clothing.”
Wow, a rental service. How disruptive.