“To Say or Not to Say” in 2015

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“Go wash your mouth out with soap!”

Thankfully, those are words I never heard my parents say, although I suspect they came close on more than a couple of occasions. Nor have I been tempted (yet) to say them to my own children.

However, if you’re like me, there are a handful of words that while they don’t warrant an official “soap washing,” they may make you wish you had a Magic Eraser handy.

And for most of us, these words fall into two general categories: personal/home and career/work.

Yearly, SearchCIO asks it Twitter following (#CIOChat recap) which IT words it’s ready to retire or swear off using in the upcoming year.

This year’s nominees included “disruption” (also “disruptor” and “disruptive), “solution,” “shadow IT,” “break/fix IT,” and “digital native.” Last year the list included “big data,” “customer-focused,” the “digital age,” and “more for less.”

Time Magazine conducted a similar poll online, asking readers which word, from a provided list of 15, should be banned in 2015.

While this year’s list was comprised with what I would loosely describe as teenage slang (e.g., “bae,” “literally,” and “sorry not sorry”), two technology/marketing terms were included: “influencer” and “disrupt.”

So, what are the words in my household?

I asked my almost 17-year-old daughter and my husband. Hers: “bae.” My husband’s: “transparent,” “literally (our girls say it all the time) and “like.”

As for me, my list toppers include “next-generation” (this word has been on my list for several years now), “Internet of Things” (it’s 2015’s “cloud,” IMO), “transparent” (don’t say it; just be it!), “disrupt” (as the SearchCIO article reported, this word is so overused that it’s devoid of meaning) and “literally” (last year, it would have been “swag”).

What words top your list? Tell us on Twitter #DPArmy.

About the Author: Heidi Biggar