July 20, 2026
Content? Cue the comment chaos
I Stopped "Creating Content"
Writer ditches “content” talk and the comments instantly turn into a word war
TLDR: A writer says calling blogs, books, and art “content” turns creative work into soulless product-speak. Commenters split fast: some agreed the language feels gross, while others argued these labels are useful tools — and one brutally said the blog itself felt more like “content” than art.
One writer marched into the internet square and declared: stop calling everything “content.” In his essay, he jokes that calling Michelangelo’s David “legacy content” with “strong engagement” is so cursed it should trigger an alarm at LinkedIn headquarters. His real point is simple: calling a blog a blog, a book a book, and readers readers changes how you think about creative work. And wow, the community had feelings.
The biggest split? Some commenters were nodding along, while others slammed the brakes and said the argument was a little skin-deep. One reader asked whether a catch-all word like “content” is actually useful, and whether the real problem is not the word itself but the factory-style mindset behind it. Another took aim at labels in general, saying “users” can sound just as cold and lifeless as “traffic,” and arguing that people should be treated more like customers you serve.
Then came the counterattack: one commenter basically said, calm down, these words all have their place. Visitor, reader, user, customer — different labels for different moments. And the spiciest jab of all? A commenter said the author’s own blog feels more like “content” than David ever could. Ouch. The thread even brought receipts, with a related video essay dropped into the mix like bonus drama. So yes, this started as a rant about bad business language — and ended as a full-blown comment-section identity crisis over art, work, and whether words quietly reshape the soul.
Key Points
- •The article uses a satirical description of Michelangelo’s *David* as "content" to show how corporate terminology can sound absurd when applied to art.
- •It traces the popularization of the term "content" in part to Bill Gates’ 1996 essay "Content is King," which discussed how the internet would monetize creative work.
- •The article states that "content" has become a broad catchall for many forms of creative output, including blogs, songs, and films.
- •The author says that after starting a writing-based business in 2018, they adopted business terms such as "content business" because those labels were widely used.
- •After attending an indie business conference, the author decided to replace corporate jargon with more specific terms such as blog, readers, comments, and book.