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           The Challenge of Replacing "User" with More Precise Terms

   Adam Engst

   In a piece for the MIT Technology Review, [1]Taylor Majewski writes:

     People have been called 'users' for a long time; it's a practical
     shorthand enforced by executives, founders, operators, engineers,
     and investors ad infinitum. Often, it is the right word to describe
     people who use software: a user is more than just a customer or a
     consumer. ... But 'users' is also unspecific enough to refer to just
     about everyone. It can accommodate almost any big idea or long-term
     vision. We use'and are used by'computers and platforms and
     companies. Though 'user' seems to describe a relationship that is
     deeply transactional, many of the technological relationships in
     which a person would be considered a user are actually quite
     personal.

   I confess to occasional pangs of editorial guilt when using the term
   "user" in TidBITS. As Majewski points out, it's both generic and
   suffers from connotations of addiction (which aren't always
   inappropriate with regard to technology). Yet, I've always rebelled
   against other common terms. Unless I'm talking about a transaction
   process, I'm uncomfortable with "customer" because it reduces a person
   to a mere conduit for money. "Consumer" also troubles me because of its
   implied passivity'it makes me think of [2]the people in Wall-E.
   Describing people by what they do or the role they play is the
   solution, and I encourage everyone to join me in working to craft more
   precise descriptions of those who interact with the software that fills
   our everyday lives. We're more than just users.

References

   1. https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/04/19/1090872/ai-users-people-terms/
   2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-kdRdzxdZQ

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