My words, not my content

Every so often I think about the word “content.” It’s not my favourite word. Content feels relatively flat compared to the things to which it can refer.I have been meaning to write about my preference for something else for a while: I prefer to say “my words” or “my stories”, which fits what I create here on this website.Both “my” and “words” have meaning. First, my website is full of my words. It is quizzically hard to be yourself but it feels good when you are. This website is a slice of my life: observations of Nature, dreams for the future of the web, what I have learned as I build technology. Second, these are my words: writing words makes me feel alive. Whereas “content” is bland, “words” – or “pictures” or [insert your creative medium here] – have energy and life.Hence, I try to avoid “content” and use “my words.” I may slip up every now and again, but words matter. “words” or “pictures” mean something more because they are specific: they encapsulate art, stories, lenses.