Vi har hakat upp oss på ordet konsument en längre tid. Dels för att det stipulerar en sorts passiv person men också för att det blottar en, för oss, främmande människosyn. För några år sedan lanserades ordet ”prosumer” som ett försök att knyta ihop säcken lite. Ordet bildas av ”producer” och ”consumer” och är väl ok. Problemet är återigen dess könlösa klang.

Jerry Michaelski, mannen bakom ”Release 1.0,” skriver:

”If you look in Webster’s Dictionary, to consume is to destroy, often waistfully, as in the building was consumed by fire. So I would submit to you that we never consume a movie, or consume a phone call, or consume a news paper. What we do, if we do it right, is read an article in the news paper and think of a friend who would be really interested in the artice and forward the article to him. Or watch a movie and then the next morning, talk about the movie with colleagues as a way of building relationships and sharing what we think about it and learning more about each other. So even when we consume a meal, even when we eat something and it is destroyed or at least processed by us, we’re on a date, we’re on a job interview, we’re nourishing ourselfs, we’re not really just destroying it. And the problem with the word consumers is that it narrows us down to just that function, of us as gullets with wallets and eye balls. That’s it. That’s all treating us as consumers really thinks of us. It’s not interested in our lifes, the fact that we have a life and we’re trying to get things done and sometimes have problems and don’t want to buy the little shiny thing dangling in front of our faces but actually need some help getting things done. When you see people not as consumers but as humans, it changes the way you think about what you deliver for them, it changes the notion that you’re going to know more than they do about what they need in their lifes. It changes your relationship to them in many different ways.”

Fint sagt. Nu återstår att döpa denna nya kons… xxxxx…… till något.

…”Människor” kanske?

/Patrick