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Comment by gaur | Hacker News Reader

Am I the only one who is slightly grossed out when people use the word "consume" to talk about media?

That word has permeated our language. There was a time when the word for "normal everyday person" was "citizen". Now it's "consumer". I hate it too.

They're different words which draw different contrasts.

A citizen is a normal person in contrast to the military (and unfortunately, lately the police).

A consumer is a normal person in contrast to manufacturers/media companies.

I think you're confusing "citizen" with "civilian" there, although I agree neither are the same thing or were ever used in the same way as "consumer".

define 'citizen' - > a legally recognized subject or national of a state or commonwealth, either native or naturalized.

>I think you're confusing "citizen" with "civilian"

Oh indeed. Not sure how that happened.

In any case, my point is that the words are used in different contexts to emphasise different things. People don't talk about "citizens" in the context of the media market, because legal nationality isn't really relevant to the topic.

Its a double plus ungood badthink to point out that X% of the population watching TV show "Y" in the geographic boundaries of the USA are citizens of some other country, especial if they're the fraction that are here illegally.

Better to just call them people, which is factually correct, implies they should have equal treatment, and is somewhat more relevant WRT the commercial nature of TV unless you're trying to use TV commercials to sell something that would appeal to people based strongly on nation of citizenship like Mexico flags or immigration lawyer or language learning products or similar.

Same, my stomach churns a little every time it's used. It's unfortunate because one implies engagement, productivity, and civic mindedness, the other implies passivity, gluttony, etc.

So... sounds like the word is being used properly.

And "content", we "consume" the "content", now, yeah, I find it somehow gross.

What else would one call it ?

Use

Read/watch? IIRC "consume" showed up within the last decade.

Consume is a bit older - I remember it in use around 2000

Do you "consume" paintings in art galery?

You're consuming content in a physical content delivery platform!

(Yes, I hate the word "content" in this context too)

There are more productive dislikes.. I'm afraid you'll have to learn to be content with it, or the anger will consume you.

Exactly. I sort of dislike the term applied to things like consumer (there is is again) electronics because I like to think of that stuff as more of a tool for doing things or occasionally an appliance for making other things easier or more efficient.

But for television and movies, I'm just sitting back and enjoying it the way I would a good meal or a good cocktail. I'm not interacting with it in the way I'd interact with a video game or a board game. I'm not using it to create anything except maybe in the most abstract way of "enabling me to make connections with other people who also like the show/movie".

And I'm fine with that. I like the new popularity of serialized television as much as the next guy because it can be more akin to reading a novel in its own way. I'm being entertained and sometimes mentally stimulated by it even though I'm not creating or doing anything else.

And other times I prefer something interactive like a game or something creative like my ongoing quest to get better with hobby electronics. If anything, my only complaint is that I sometimes feel like I've already watched everything I'm interested in seeing. Skimming Netflix or Amazon Prime Video or rentals from the Play Store(or even torrents when I get really bored and run out of ideas) for stuff to watch is a lot more common now than it was 5 years ago when I hadn't been using the services for as long.

I guess I just treat Netflix and Amazon the way I used to treat basic cable: I can't always count on a specific thing being there but if I skim through the options, there's usually something to watch. For the relatively low cost, I find it generally worthwhile.

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