The Least Popular Buzzwords of 2020

Last month, the WEAll Scotland team met with around 50 of our friends and colleagues at the (strictly virtual) pub for an evening of discussion, reflection, and games. It was a chance to chat about what WEAll Scotland accomplished last year, how the wellbeing economy movement is progressing, and also for our guests to tell us about what they’ve been working on.

Before we moved on to the festivities (the WEAll Scotland team runs a top-quality scavenger hunt, after all), we sent a survey round for people to fill out as and when they wished throughout the evening.

One of the more fun questions?

“What was your least favourite buzzword of 2020?”

We want to share some of the responses with you.

Happy reading, and please drop us a message if you’d like to share your own least favourite buzzwords with us, too.

What were your least favourite buzzwords of 2020?

2020. It was an unprecedented year—although maybe we shouldn’t use that particular word, since it was officially the least popular buzzword from last year . . . at least according to our guests at last month’s WEAll Scotland social.

After unprecedented, other unpopular buzzwords included new normal, world beating, and the last name of a certain former US president.

Not everyone suggested buzzwords they thought were bad, of course. Take social distancing, for example, which was one of the responses that didn’t crack the top 10, so it’s not featured in the list below. Social distancing is a vital practice just now. But it’s also understandable that some of these terms become part of the background noise after one hears them 57 times in a single day.

That’s what we work to avoid with wellbeing economy. Yes, it’s a phrase that we use a lot, but its meaning is both tangible and highly relevant to Scotland and the world: an economy that enables social justice on a healthy planet. Sounds like a pretty good idea after all the uncertainty of 2020, eh?

But back to the buzzwords.

In order of un-popularity, here are our guests’ top 10 least popular buzzwords of 2020:

1. Unprecedented
2. New normal
3. World beating
4. Trump
5. Pivot
6. Moonshot
7. Cummings
8. Brexit
9. Woke
10. Maga

There you have it! And remember, this was just an ice breaker game–all in good fun. But we do hope it got you thinking about communication and how we can go about it in 2021.

So with that, in an unprecedented year of new normals, we hope you enjoyed our world-beating list of buzzwords. And if not, maybe you’ll pivot after giving it another read.