Are You Familiar With This Year’s Buzzwords?
What’s big in 2016?
If the world is creating a “buzz” around your latest project, you should be jumping for joy. Buzz is like currency in the tech world: where there is buzz the rest will follow, the rest being success, money and fame.
Buzzwords can make or break a startup company. They represent the language of the tech business industry. Some call it lingo or jargon, but for the purposes of this article we will call it buzz, and not just because it’s fun to say buzz!
If you’re not quite sure what exactly a buzzword is think“big data”, “selfie” and “optimization”. You won’t have to think too far back because those words were big buzzwords in 2014 and 2015. This doesn’t mean that the words lose relevance once we hit a new year; all of those topics are still important. With the way the tech world in particular is evolving, though, we’re likely to see a whole new set of buzzwords in 2016.
If you still aren’t sure what a buzzword is, take it straight from the Urban Dictionary:
(n.) Ambiguous word (often hyphenated) that is repeated over and over to win support for a cause. use of buzzwords is not exclusive to any side of the political spectrum, or any particular opinion on any matter.
Not all aspects of buzzwords are bright and shiny; unfortunately there is a dark side. Some of these popular words are overused without specific attention paid to their meaning (for example, how many times did you hear the word “unicorn” last year?), and can become distorted. Sometimes a buzzword will gain popularity overnight, and before you know it, every person you meet is repeating that same word to show off their tech skills.
Trends come and go, and it is the job of businesses and marketers around the world to be up to date for the next big hit or buzzword. Below are some words that we feel will quickly become important in the year to come, to keep you in the know:
“Innovation”
Innovation is by no means a new term; it’s a trend in business and tech to be seen as “innovative”. Innovation in any field creates leaders in that field, much like Apple with their smartphone technology and Facebook with their social media platform. This year, however, innovation is coming to politics.
The political activity preparing for the 2016 elections has repeatedly brought up ideas of “innovation”.The dark side of this word is that it has become a quickfire solution to many of the problems that the country is facing, allowing many politicians to avoid providing any measurable action plans for the future. Innovation is terrific, but our political campaigners might need to be a little more specific.
“Thought Leader”
If you work in the technical sphere and someone is discussing a thought leader, they are describing someone who is an asset who doesn’t possess technical skills. For example, many marketing creatives are thought leaders – a compliment for anyone who is paid to strategize. The dark side of this word is when it is used to describe someone who should have vast technical skills. Being described as a thought leader should be considered as a small slight for anyone who is heavily immersed in the technical side of the business.
“Scalable”
Now here is a buzzword we can all agree on. As the tech world progresses it becomes easier to get exactly what you need because of scalable technology. For example, SSD VPS options from Midphase are scalable to fit your project today and next year, no matter how much growth you encounter. You can learn more about scalability at Midphase.com. As a buzzword we have yet to see a dark side, but you might want to ask us again in six months.
These words only represent a small sample of the buzzwords we are going to see as the year progresses, but at least as a consolation we will be able to say “goodbye” to of a few words that we’ve had too much of last year. Personally, if I hear “drink the kool-aid” one more time I might just drink it myself.
Have a favorite or least favorite buzzword from 2015? Let us know on Twitter or Facebook.