Zeitgeist Explained: The Critical Noise Dictionary of Shifts (2025 Edition)

Back in 2014, I published a list of cultural contrasts I was noticing a new lexicon that described how the world seemed to be sliding from one paradigm into another.

You can find that original post here: 2014 Post: Zeitgeist Explained | 20th Century → 21st Century

I wasn’t sure what to call it this sensation, or my reaction to it, only that I felt the ground moving beneath my feet at an ever accelerating rate. Nevertheless, I batched this and and a few related blog entries under the searchable tag: Decoding the Now.

The idea was -and I think continues to be– simple: how to make sense of the present in light of one's past lived experience? It occurred to me that sometimes the most revealing thing we can do is hold up a pair of words and watch how one has displaced the other. Not because the old word has disappeared, but because the new one tells us how power, technology, culture, and identity are being reorganized in our lives.

I’ve revisited that 2014 list, trimmed it, updated it, and added new entries that reflect the accelerations of the 2020s. Together, they form what I’m presently calling:

The Critical Noise Dictionary of Shifts (2025 Edition)

Media & Meaning

• Book → Interface

• Album → Playlist

• Story → Message

• Theme → Meme

• Mythology → Technology

• Poetry → Code

• Word → Emoji

• Popular → Viral

• Broadcast → Stream

• News → Trend

• Observation → Conversation

• Truth → Narrative

Identity & Work

• Job → Gig

• Professional → Gig Worker

• Salary → Fee

• Talent → Resources

• Audience → User

• Citizen → Stakeholder

• Office Worker → Digital Nomad

• Alone → Connected

• Family → Friends

Power & Politics

• National → Global

• Statesman → Clown

• Assumption → Data

• Expert → Consensus

• Rules → Heuristics

• CIA → NSA

• NATO → SINO

• Democracy → Populism

• Markets → Monopolies

Technology & Systems

• Analog → Digital

• Hardware → Software

• Tool → App

• Paper → Pixel

• Desk → Cloud

• System → Matrix

• Linear → Agile

• Store → Site

• Update → Iterate

• Publication → Iteration

• Research → Prompt

• Rules of the road → Terms and Conditions

Economy & Exchange

• Customer → Adopter

• Company → Platform

• Own → Subscribe

• Sell → Monetize Attention

• Proprietary → Transparent

• Product → Process

• Solution → Option

• Launch → Release

• Loyalty → Like

Culture & Expression

• Collage → Mashup

• Compose → Sample

• Musician → DJ

• In Tune → Autotune

• Authentic → Adobe

• Daydream → Touch Screen

• Institution → Network

• Watch → Record

• Tune In → Log On

Society & Belonging

• Cliques → Tribes

• Organize → Viral Swarm

• Isolated → Affiliated

• Suburb → City

• Office → Remote

• Offshore → Locavore

• Public Domain → Open Source

• Collaborate → Crowdsource

• Unify → Occupy

New 2025 Inserts (Acceleration of the Shift)

• Privacy → Surveillance

• Fact → Feed

• Influence → Algorithm

• Nation-State → Network-State

• Human → Human+AI

• Education → Content

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This list is not exhaustive. It’s a living document, a sketch of how the 20th century became the 21st, and how the 21st keeps mutating under our feet.

If the 2014 version was about sensing a coming wave, this 2025 edition is about realizing we’re already swimming in it, and the real question is how not to drown. I hope this list can serve as a flotation device, as it has for me in the simple act of creating it.