Friday Rant: Social Media, Experts and the Military-Industrial Complex

I’ve been keeping up to date on my social media analytics/technology reading and I have noticed a recurring trend. It seems the social media glitterarti is taking offense to self-designated gurus and experts. Now, to be fair, those who are voicing their issue with these labels are often quick to say “they are not experts”. And I expect they are just trying to keep their audience informed of individual, who may misrepresent their skills and/or achievements. I don’t really have an opinion one way or the other as my only true claim to fame is an amazing ability to stand on one leg, with my eyes shut and my hands clasped above my head.

However, I do have strong feelings about word choice, so I can get on board with their issue with the label ‘expert’. If I were to add to the list of things to write a rant about (that aren’t really life-threatening ) it would probably be about the need to explain purely business/technology-related topics as if they are the major military operation.

Maybe I’m overly-sensitive? Perhaps, I’m spoiling for a fight. Either way I am over describing work in terms of a military operations. I don’t operate out of a command center, nor rummage around in my purse for an arsenal with which to lob against my competitor in a fight to the death. I don’t know if this is unique to IT, start-ups, engineering, etc or if this may reveal a gender predilection for explaining office work in terms of a highly militarized, aggressive and armed offensive.

Here are some recent examples:

• Metrics–The Secret Weapon Of Sales Managers??
• Need bigger CRM guns? Add marketing automation to your CRM arsenal
• App Engine: Google’s Cloud-Computing Weapon
• TSA’s new secret weapon: politeness

Why do we use this type of imagery to describe the work we do? When metaphors to military and weapons are used it applies a veneer of life and death significance to business decisions.  Working at a desk in an office does not conjure up images of combat and espionage for me. I wonder if that reveals a lack of imagination on my part or maybe I see what I do through the prism of the contribution I make: blog post frequency, web conversion indicators, content development, etc.

Or does this theme reveal some insecurities about what we do with our lives. The intensity, camaraderie, and higher purpose that people work towards and develop in settings like the military,  fire department or other service-related job may be something we all envy sitting in front of a laptop.