Get the latest tech news

I Hate the Term "Modern"

I strongly despise the word 'modern' because of its use as a term to demean and as a way for people to refuse to consider something based solely off of mistaken notions of what modernity means.

I strongly despise the word “modern” because of its use as a term to demean and refuse to consider something just because it wasn’t created in the last handful of years and even to market something as being good because it’s new. For example, I have encountered situations where others would look at the tools that I am using, such as Neovim (which has its roots in the 1976 editor vi), or command-line email clients such as NeoMutt (which has its roots in the 1995 mail client Mutt) or aerc (which had its first release a little over a year ago) and say things like “Why not use a modern editor like VS Code?” or “Why not use a modern web interface for your email?”. Naturally I’m happy to answer those questions, especially when asked by people who are genuinely curious and not deriding, but I have so often seen tools, practices, and software rejected for not being “modern” (whatever that actually means), that my guard instantly goes up and I assume I’m about to be chastised for using something uncommon.

Get the Android app