I’ve always had an aversion to the term ‘user.’<\/p>\n
First, there’s the negative drug connotation. When someone speaks of a drug user, it’s often under hushed breath or a code for an addict. No one who actually uses drugs refers to themselves as users, except perhaps in jest.<\/p>\n
In the technology world, ‘user’ is the term given to one who uses technology. Well, actually, only certain types of technology. One is not a TV user, but a TV consumer. And business people often refer to those who use their technology as customers.<\/p>\n
My problem with the term ‘user’ really resides in the fact that it doesn’t convey what i want it to convey. I use a hammer. There’s a prescribed usage pattern. I am at the whim of the tool; it has power over me by dictating what i can do with it.<\/p>\n
When it comes to using blogs or wikis or Friendster, i’m not a user. I’m not following a prescribed usage pattern. I am a producer, a consumer, and a user. I may use a blogging tool, but i don’t use a blog; am i a blog user? I may use Friendster to surf profiles, but as i create one, am i a Friendster user? What happens when i fundamentally alter the tool and the content in my use of the software?<\/p>\n
To be a ‘user’ feels so disempowered. There’s no creativity in that position, no positive output – i am simply taking, not giving. It also feels so inhuman, lacking emotion, passion, feeling. It is action-driven only.<\/p>\n
The term ‘user’ grates at me, but i don’t know how to get around the term. I find myself trapped in it as i write. Are there other approaches to this?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve always had an aversion to the term ‘user.’ First, there’s the negative drug connotation. When someone speaks of a drug user, it’s often under hushed breath or a code for an addict. No one who actually uses drugs refers to themselves as users, except perhaps in jest. In the technology world, ‘user’ is the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1324\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}