If you’ve spent much time around social networks or services like Twitter, you will have seen a lot of passionate people.

Earlier today someone who claims to be passionate about search engine optimisation followed my Twitter account. In recent months I’ve come across people who are passionate about real estate, online marketing and customer service management to name just a few.

They are either liars, totally deluded or insane. I don’t which is worse.

Sorry. Nobody is passionate about search engine optimisation. They might enjoy working in the field. They may enjoy it an awful lot and be excited by the money it pays. But they are not passionate. Not if they are mentally healthy.

The term is meaningless. It’s a cliché. It tells me the person using it is an unimaginative idiot. I nearly used a rude word there instead of ‘idiot’.

If you want to say you like something a lot, think up a new way of expressing the idea and we might just want to listen.

And while we’re on the subject, the same applies to sexy.

Computers are not sexy. Pieces of software are not sexy. Attractive members of the opposite sex are sexy.