Word: contentous
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...word would fade for years until it was reborn in the early '90s, used again to describe a generation of middle-class youths interested in an alternative art and music scene. But instead of creating a culture of their own, hipsters proved content to borrow from trends long past. Take your grandmother's sweater and Bob Dylan's Wayfarers, add jean shorts, Converse All-Stars and a can of Pabst and bam - hipster...
Meanwhile, the advertisers who are loath to pay for banner ads at websites have shown interest in, as they say, more "integrated" forms of product-plugging. Some news sites sell companies "sponsored content" mentioning their products, while independent blogs collect payoffs for posts - positive ones only, please - about merchandise. (Where did I learn about that? From the New York Times, which had to report the story without sponsorship from Healthy Choice...
...plus old-school outlets that survive. They could produce good journalism. (After all, traditional news outlets aren't without potential conflict either; I review HBO series even though HBO's owner owns TIME.) But they may include funding models far different from the old church-and-state separation of content-making and money-raising. (See the best and worst Super Bowl commercials...
This is no get-rich-quick scheme. But eHow.com whose popularity has soared during the recession as DIYers seek advice on topics like "How to Run Bathroom Plumbing," will pay any Joe Blow for content. All writers are welcome, regardless of expertise or ability to string sentences together. Since 2007, the site has paid its Everyman scribes more than $1 million. A single how-to might net all of $20 a year, but the prolific can earn much more. Maria O'Brien, a stay-at-home mom in northern Virginia, has written 367 (and counting) articles, for which eHow deposits...
Perhaps, you say, it would be better to be a Lindsay, who seems perfectly content spending her days oblivious to complication—going shopping and making hot ham water. But I don’t so much have the clothes or the hair to pull that off. And being married to Tobias could get a little awkies. Or maybe a Lucille or George Sr., who can simply will (or hire a one-armed man to help coerce) what they want done. Seems to work out fairly well for them, but I guess I’m still a little...