Watching TV on a Phone and Listening to a Podcast on a TV and Doing Software Development with a Microphone...

Nothing makes any sense anymore.

When did we start calling The Tonight Show, The Tonight TV? We didn't. When did we start to use terms to explain media after defunct pieces of hardware? Who listens to podcasts on iPods anymore? As communicators we do a poor job of communicating concepts. We do even a worse job with brand naming (don't get me started on this topic when it comes to brand and product names at Microsoft). We love silly terms to explain mediums. We feel audiences will understand them more as a result. But will we? Most of us don't use the term content. We don't say, "I read some amazing content on LinkedIn!" No, we say "I read an amazing article on LinkedIn" or for some they may state "I read an amazing blog post" (Isn't that particular statement the biggest oxymoron in the world?).

Marketers came up with these "disruptive" (cringe) terms to differ what they did from real journalists to create demand generation for their not necessary to use at all products.

The same is true of TV. What does it mean? Is it the flatscreen on your wall or programming produced by NBC, CBS and ABC? Oh wait, but what is it that Netflix, Amazon and Hulu do? Isn't that TV too?

Don't get me started with film. Why do we call it film when a majority of it isn't even produced on film anymore? What is a movie? Is it something you have to see in a cinema theater? Or can you watch it on your mobile phone? Does it need to be a minimum of 120 minutes or can it be 15 minutes?

What is photography? With every Jane and John photoshopping themselves in a bathing suits on Instagram is what they do considered photography? Or must it be shot on a DSLR camera? Better yet, must it be shot and developed on film in a darkroom?

Are you truly a DJ if you don't spin vinyl records on a Technics 1200-MK2? Tell that to the Ableton Live users.

What about radio? That's dead according to most articles I read and it's been replaced by podcasts. But these podcasts are starting to sound like old school radio. Even with the hosts voicing the show's sponsors. Also smart speakers (Amazon Echo, Google Home, Apple Homepod, Harmon Karmon Invoke) seems to be creating audio influencers like YouTube created video influencers. So what gives?

The other day I coded an app using a microphone to create commands. I barely touched a keyboard. Is what I'm doing toy coding or am I really a developer? I thought you had to touch keys on a keyboard to be considered a dev?

When we cannot explain the world with simple stories anymore does it mean we are entering a realm of mixed reality?

Then the question becomes what is mixed reality? Isn't that augmented reality? Why do we use this term when reality is hard to explain in the first place?

I'm so confused.

And yet maybe, this is the whole point?

What worked in the past isn't going to work moving forward. This has always been the case in life but for some reason storytelling tries to bound us to rules that everyone assumes will work for everyone. And we're surprised when we find out a lot of people don't want to follow those rules.

So watch TV on your phone, listen to podcasts on your TV and code with a microphone.

Leave the traditional and boring people to play by the "rules."

Geoffrey Colon is a Senior Marketing Communications Designer at Microsoft and host of the radio show DISRUPTIVE FM where Business and Culture collide. He also programs and developed the Amazon Alexa Skill DISRUPTIVE FM DAILY for those in the marketing and advertising industries. Enable the skill and ask your Echo, "Alexa, What's In the News?"