Hey-ho. Back from a long day at the SEO salt mines, I can tell you that it is difficult to write for optimization. I am worried about Newspeakish behaviors. The search for words and ideas now depends so much on our laziness. So does our acceptance of the news. If we agree to stop at the first page of results, or to simply absorb uncritically everything that is broadcast, then not only is the search for information is not so much fun as it used to be, we limit our proficiency in finding the truth through words, and we accept print results even if they are inaccurate or wrong. As the focus shifts aggressively from informing to selling, we need to become more creative about how we look for knowledge and the truth.
Optimizers depend on generics and key word carelessness. They talk about providing “content,” when many are actually providing word fill, a verbal equivalent to landfill. The meaning of a word is often obscured by these practices. The trick is to draw people to a website by means of word bait. And it works.
Take the word, “theory,” which is a useful scientific term that refers to a verified hypothesis or set of hypotheses that have become accepted as true. In careless modern practice, though, “theory” is a term that has better search results as an Adsense keyword term than “hypothesis,” so in the game of optimized key words, “theory” wins, even when it’s not an accurate description. Today, I googled “theory,” and, apart from links to definitions, what I found was that Donald Trump is said to have a “theory” about President Obama’s birth certificate. According to the Daily Beast, yesterday, however, perhaps upon learning that the White House was going to publish a copy of the real birth certificate after all, Mr. Trump appears to have moved on to a “theory” about the President’s college transcript.
Neither one of Trump’s pronouncements can be accurately called a “theory.” The risk of allowing him to call his ideas a “theory” is that in our complacency or amusement, we allow his hypothesis to gain both currency and volume views. In this way, if we are complacent about what appears on our screens, and if something is repeated often enough to acquire a hash tag, it may even acquire the status of a “theory,” or even a “law.” What results then is reminiscent of Newspeak
Why do we allow ourselves to be distracted from any real consideration of issues? We try to teach schoolchildren how to distinguish the truth. Many take lab sciences and are exposed to the difference between a “hypothesis” and a “theory.” Why is that knowledge dropped along the way? Educated citizens need to do better than lazy searching, or they might as well kiss their freedom good-bye. Search results tend to become reflexive, referring back to themselves—that is why I included the word “meta” in the title of today’s entry. In languages derived from Latin, however, “meta” can also mean a “goal.” If we have a goal in search, we are less likely to be victimized by other people’s goals or pseudo-theories.
“Nothing from nothing leaves nothing,” if you will allow me to join the musical messages of Edith Piaf
We can do better in searching for meaning. Try Googling the word “Lazy” and see if you notice that it’s also a town in the Czech Republic. You know how to Google, doncha? Try the Advanced Search. Stretch your mind. If you dig through enough pages, maybe you’ll even find the lyrics to a delightfully energetic song by David Byrne.
