I have had a love-hate relationship with the word “it” in all of its permutations. There, I admitted it. In my book, it is not exactly a Term of Endearment (TOE), more like a non-specific bit in the underbelly of language, that I’ve had to grapple with waaaay too much lately. I’m training myself to be a writer after all, so words matter.1
IT as in Internet Technology, was a huge love of mine, until IT became too much a playground of nefarious Nigerian Princes and immature tech bros playing mostly a profit game. The way the web works now bears evidence that many folks spent their IT energy finding ways to distract people from important things, or to buy more stuff, or to mesmerize others to get caught up in Efficiency with a capital E.2
I’ve always seen the Internet as a space of love and connection, sharing and teaching, beauty and egalitarian knowledge, and a place to play and help people. That is, until I saw the web’s dark side. This realization came later to me than to most. So I’m stepping back a tiny bit until I can work in this realm with more positivity again, and figure out new ways to utilize IT for good amidst a culture that drank the efficiency by electronics koolaid. So for now, I stay in it, on my own terms, and I write this kind of stuff, in the spirit of humans first, always.
IT as in Information Technology, was always a little suspect to me. Biometrics like our age, gender, even interests and common biological challenges have been brokered to the highest buyers in the name of commerce since WAY back. And we know how many times our personal and financial data has been hacked, or legally repackaged and resold. Happens every day.
Don’t know what I mean? Be a 50 year old woman and watch your media experience fill with menopause content and vitamins. Or a middle school aged boy and see what kind of “manliness” propaganda is coming your way.
Some of the wealthiest folks I know have been compiling and brokering this information at the highest levels for over a generation. Then they retire rich and probably try to forget what they’ve done. That’s because this data (also understood as information about your human nature) is incredibly valuable in commerce and kingdom building.
This IT builds empires, and it seems, everybody wants to rule the world.
it as in a pronoun of something not worth naming nor with any defining characteristics. It in language has a complete void of relatable qualities. Did you ever read A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle? If so, you know the worst thing ever was it: the darkness taking over the universe, which was thankfully held up in positivity by Mrs. Who, Mrs. Whatsit, Meg, Charles and the other lady (it’s been a while since I read the book.)
I don’t think the genderless nature of pronoun it is the problem though, I love a little gender ambiguity and fluidity, because our inner lives and bodily selves go through so many changes in how we experience life, fluidity makes sense for beings made of over 70% water, if you catch my drift.
I think my dislike of the word has been growing as I study literature and language and attempt to explain consciousness in writing. Human Experiences that are difficult to name often wind up in expressions like, “then it seemed like the world was crashing in.” What seemed?! See what I mean?
Also my poor husband is the king of talking via pronouns with no antecedents, so I’m always (annoyingly) chasing the subject of his statements with questions “what are you talking about?” Love that guy! He keeps me on my toes.
That’s all I’ve got to say today on it. A little bit of a take down. Yet I’m willing to find a way to appreciate the term if you can explain to me why it is good. I mean, it is surely handy in stringing together sentences, but WTF does it really mean3? Seriously, email me.
FOOTNOTES & SUB-SUBTEXT 😉
- Remember when Bill Clinton answered a question with the response “it depends on what the meaning of the word is, is”? This is the level of granular understanding of language (and perhaps lawyerly savvy), I’d like to develop. Hence really picky little essays like this. Just skip it if not your cup o tea… ↩︎
- In my world, Care, Craftsmanship, and Community are of greater value than Efficiency, but tech bros are clearly doing their thing, and shaping the space. ↩︎
- Cambridge Dictionary meaning of term, and its proper usage is here, but that is not exactly what I am asking after… ↩︎
