October 6th, 2006

We computer geeks introduced a strange little vernacular into the world when we started calling the audience for our software, "users". Think about it: who else calls their customers "users"? Only the drug-dealers. Hell, the drug-pushers who continue to sell their products legally (tobacco, alcohol, and, I suppose to some extent, caffeinated and/or sugary drinks) are all careful to not call their customers "users" because they don't want to be associated with such seedy death-peddlers as drug-dealers. But the term got adopted and quietly applied by people in computer hardware and software circles over the course of years.

I wonder why.

You can say something like this at a bus stop: "I am a user ..." and everybody's ears will prick up until you complete the sentence, "... of Microsoft products." At which time their hands will move away from their concealed weapons they had planned to use against you if you tried to rob them to pay for your next hit of crystal meth, crack, or poutine. I mean, "user" is not a good word to describe yourself, is it?

When applied to others, the term "user" is smug at best, and highly derogatory at worst. You don't just give someone a name with such negative connotations, then expect them to cheerfully continue on with their busy lives completely unaffected by it.

"User" means "taker". It means an attitude of thoughtless and selfish consumption. It means single-minded absorption and greed. When we call someone a user, it is as if we are saying, "you are a user, not a provider. Morally, you are part of the problem." It makes a person unhelpful and child-like, maybe childish.

And "user" has connotations of addiction. Again, it is a moralistic judgement. People who are addicted will do anything, no matter how morally reprehensible, to get their next fix. Users are stupid and blinded by their desire for their addiction. Men will use all necessary violence, women will prostitute themselves, and both will use all manner of cheap thievery and lies to satisfy the need.

Painting people in the "user" light is an interesting statement made by computer professionals. It started at a time when computers were the sole purview of what later became the computer geek stereotype: Lone man, unattractive and unkempt. Drawn to the control that computers gave them to counter the lack of control they felt in the real world. A compensation for what they felt were inadequate social skills. (Those people really do exist, you know.) And though they were all different and unique in their own ways, they could not help but feel a little ... er ... distanced from the mainstream of society—not just because of their natures, but also because of the fear and suspicion exhibited by others: computers were difficult and unruly, large and somewhat frightening. People tended to minimize computer geeks out of fear of computers, and out of a perceived need for self-defense against them.

So it is hardly surprising that the geeks themselves started to (almost definitely unconsciously) retaliate with a term for the people who would eventually benefit the most from their technical efforts. Oh, and by the way, it's a term that we don't mind calling ourselves fondly, now, but let's not forget that the term "geek" itself is derogatory: it literally means someone who bites heads off chickens at a circus, but also came to mean a strange, slightly insane, and abnormal person.

"User" makes a subtle, but damning counter attack to a public stereotype of computer professionals reflected in words such as "nerd" and "geek". It is not immediately inflammatory, but it has a definite negative connotation. It is a retaliation that is no longer relevant, since computers have entered the polis as just another part of the landscape (lanscape) along with cars and television. It is no longer a social statement to use a computer, so, in effect, everyone has become a "user". But the term has stuck.

You know, it might be time to find a better word ... hmm ... unless we all really are addicted!

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