Okay, it’s time for a minor rant about a pet peeve of mine: I hate it when politicians talk about “average Americans,” as though people who don’t aspire to a career in politics are somehow “average.” How many people do you know that like to be referred to as “average?”
This practice afflicts the tech world, too. For example, while I agree wholeheartedly with this post by Scott Karp, the talk of “average people” made me grind my teeth. How about we use the phrase “non-geeks” (or “non-technical people”) when referring to people whose lives don’t revolve around their computers? That seems less condescending to me.