Micro?

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A serious question in a bit. First, consider:

Micro-famous.
Micro-blogging.
Micro-finance.
Micro-marketing.

Are we so desperate to feel any sense of importance that we’ll attach the word micro to anything just so that the definition includes us? (by the way, the same applies to new and social)

No disrespect to the creators of the terms, but it seems that we attach micro, social, or new to anything that we can’t otherwise measure up to.

Not famous? Micro-famous!
Too lazy to blog? Micro-blog!
Can’t get a loan? Micro-finance!
Don’t have the juice for large scale marketing? Micro-market!

What do you think?

inspired by the famous Chris Brogan.

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Comments

17 responses to “Micro?”

February 10, 2009

Ari Herzog

Inspirational thoughts as always, Chris, but sticking to the financial beat, what of microeconomics? Eliminate micro and what do you have? How to distinguish from macroeconomics?

Reply
February 11, 2009

Ari Herzog

Inspirational thoughts as always, Chris, but sticking to the financial beat, what of microeconomics? Eliminate micro and what do you have? How to distinguish from macroeconomics?

Reply
February 11, 2009

Mariana_Evica

I think you're probably right here, Chris. These are new words for things that already have names, in many cases. Remember “niche marketing”? It's really just marketing. All these pre-fixes (new, social, micro, hyper, etc.) will fall away on their own as the “new” methods become regarded simply as “methods”.

Reply
February 11, 2009

Whitney

Ah yes, and after the recovery (ha) it will become Macro everything.

Too narrow a focus, you lose the big picture. Too Broad a focus, you lose the detail. We all have to master the art of nuance and shifting focus to maintain clarity of perspective.

Reply
February 11, 2009

Whitney

@Ari- what about just economics- micro and macro are part of a larger picture, and you can't have one without the other.

Reply
February 11, 2009

olivia

Micro consumimg in this crisis time!At least If we micro consume and micro pollute, there will be a micro global warming, which is not that bad for us and our childern…

Reply
February 11, 2009

Mariana_Evica

I think you're probably right here, Chris. These are new words for things that already have names, in many cases. Remember “niche marketing”? It's really just marketing. All these pre-fixes (new, social, micro, hyper, etc.) will fall away on their own as the “new” methods become regarded simply as “methods”.

Reply
February 11, 2009

Whitney

Ah yes, and after the recovery (ha) it will become Macro everything.

Too narrow a focus, you lose the big picture. Too Broad a focus, you lose the detail. We all have to master the art of nuance and shifting focus to maintain clarity of perspective.

Reply
February 11, 2009

Whitney

@Ari- what about just economics- micro and macro are part of a larger picture, and you can't have one without the other.

Reply
February 11, 2009

olivia

Micro consumimg in this crisis time!At least If we micro consume and micro pollute, there will be a micro global warming, which is not that bad for us and our childern…

Reply
February 19, 2009

Daniel Johnson, Jr.

Chris, it's the same thing with superlatives and other adjectives used to describe the greatness of something. To wit: cool, neat, awesome, phenomenal, incredible, unique. The more these words are used to describe things, the less we tend to see what the words were really intended to mean.

I understand why we use these words: to draw attention to something that we may not otherwise have paid attention to. But over time, just like the words micro, new, and social in your post, these words are losing their meaning and are becoming trite.

Just some thoughts. Awesome thoughts, in my own opinion. 😉

Reply
February 20, 2009

Daniel Johnson, Jr.

Chris, it's the same thing with superlatives and other adjectives used to describe the greatness of something. To wit: cool, neat, awesome, phenomenal, incredible, unique. The more these words are used to describe things, the less we tend to see what the words were really intended to mean.

I understand why we use these words: to draw attention to something that we may not otherwise have paid attention to. But over time, just like the words micro, new, and social in your post, these words are losing their meaning and are becoming trite.

Just some thoughts. Awesome thoughts, in my own opinion. 😉

Reply
February 20, 2009

Daniel Johnson, Jr.

Chris, it’s the same thing with superlatives and other adjectives used to describe the greatness of something. To wit: cool, neat, awesome, phenomenal, incredible, unique. The more these words are used to describe things, the less we tend to see what the words were really intended to mean.

I understand why we use these words: to draw attention to something that we may not otherwise have paid attention to. But over time, just like the words micro, new, and social in your post, these words are losing their meaning and are becoming trite.

Just some thoughts. Awesome thoughts, in my own opinion. 😉

Reply
March 2, 2009

Anonymous

Nice Article. thanks For The Interesting information. I really enjoy it.

Reply
March 2, 2009

Anonymous

Nice Article. thanks For The Interesting information. I really enjoy it.

Reply
March 5, 2009

termllife

Very well written, I am impressed!

Reply
April 4, 2009

Guest

Have to say I do agree. Things like this just are what they are.

Reply