“I’ve kind of self-branded myself as a digital anthropologist,” Ariel Waldman told me, “because a lot of what I do, and what I get paid to do, is [to] be actively involved in online interactions.” Waldman had worked in several different areas of the technology industry, and the term “digital anthropologist” captured well her job skills, giving her a distinctive but easily understood title with which to market herself to potential employers. Similarly, I met a man at a conference who called himself a “change agent,” which is similar to WordPress employee Marianne Masculino’s formal business title of “happiness engineer.” These terms use advertising and marketing terminology to describe aggressively a set of skills and tasks in a catchy and appealing way that is easily consumable by potential employers.

Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, loc. 467