What’s in a metaphor?

Metaphors are the world’s nervous system. 

They are the connective tissue between language, culture, and behavior.

^That was a metaphor. Look at me going meta on you in the first 10 seconds. 

Yet, for being foundational to our existence, we don’t talk about them enough. It’s like oxygen. We don’t think about it, but it’s always there, and we need it to live. 

The main definition of a metaphor according to Merriam-Webster is: 

“A word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them (as in drowning in money)”

This is the definition that I grew up with. For most of my life, metaphors were a literary device–a tool in my poetic toolkit. 

And metaphors are powerful literary devices for storytelling, our oldest medium of communication. In storytelling, metaphors are like truffles–they can elevate any story just as a truffle can elevate any dish. I love this excerpt from a restaurant review written by Geraldine DeRuiter:

“Maybe the staff just ran out of food that night. Maybe they confused our table with that of their ex-lover’s. Maybe they were drunk. But we got twelve kinds of foam, something that I can only describe as an oyster loaf that tasted like Newark airport.”

If you ever stepped foot inside Newark airport, that last sentence made you wince. And now that feeling will stick. That’s the aftertaste.

Yet, as I began observing the world more closely and reading about metaphors, I came to understand their omnipresence beyond stories and literature. 

In the book Metaphors We Live By, authors George Lakoff and Mark Johnson describe: 

“Metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action. Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature.”

Think about your day so far. What metaphors have you unconsciously used? Perhaps you responded to an email by saying “I’ll take a swing at it!” Perhaps you pinned images to your Pinterest board during your commute.

As my awareness of metaphors has grown, I’ve realized how they are present in language, in culture, and how we interact with the digital world.

Metaphors as Thought Sherpas

In the same way sherpas guide mountaineers through the world’s most challenging peaks, metaphors guide thought. Shelby Smith illustrates this in her essay Does the language we speak shape the way we think? 

She writes about a man accidentally bumping into a table and breaking a vase. In English, you would likely say “He broke the vase.” Yet, in Spanish you would likely hear “Se rompió el jarrón,” which means “the vase broke.” Shelby explains:

“Because the English language demands that the speaker identify who did the action, accident or not, English-speakers are more likely to remember who is at fault than Spanish-speakers. Spanish-speakers who witnessed the exact same event will be less likely to remember who is at fault, but they will be more likely to remember the intention – that it was an accident.”

We usually think that it is thought that guides language. But as the example above shows, the language we use drives our thoughts; and therefore, our behavior. 

Metaphors as Mirrors and Lenses

One of my favorite things about Latin American culture is despite having shared languages, we have many metaphors that tend to be contextually regional.

For instance, in Mexico, people tend to say “ya chupó faros,” which literally translates to “they sucked lighthouses,” an odd visual, I know. 

This metaphor stems from soldiers in the revolutionary war that requested a cigarette (faros was the brand) before being executed. Now it’s used as a metaphor to describe someone that is in deep trouble or dead. 

Furthermore, they also capture cultural traits of a society. Take for instance one of my favorite metaphors broadly used in Colombia and other parts of Latin America: “Por si las moscas.” It literally translates to “for if the flies,” but contextually translates to “just in case.” The flies are a metaphor for unexpected events.

This metaphor encourages preparation, but it is expressed using something that can be thought of as pesky and bothersome. The broad use of this metaphor says a lot about Latin American societies. We tend to be cautious and risk-averse as a result of the traumas we’ve experienced in our countries, while also being playful in our language, which is a survival mechanism we’ve developed to smile in the darkest times.

In this way, metaphors are both mirrors and lenses of culture. 

Metaphors as Bridges to Digital

The way we interact with technology today is steeped in invisible metaphors that influence our behavior. In his book, User Friendly Cliff Kuang talks how these metaphors have been used in product design to help bridge physical behavior onto the digital realm.

Think about the concept of an “inbox” versus a “feed.” We are far more likely to engage with a stranger on a feed versus our inbox. This is because we think of the inbox as personal and the feed less so. 

When we think of our inbox, the underlying association is a physical mailbox, so the etiquette we observe around physical mailboxes translates onto the digital world. After all, when was the last time you printed a dick pic and put it into your neighbor’s physical mailbox? By the way, you should definitely not do that in any mailbox, virtual or physical. 

There are many other examples of the underlying metaphors that drive how we interact with technology. You swipe to turn the page in your e-book reader because it closely mimics turning the page. You have a digital wallet despite the fact that you could have something that serves the same function and does not include the word wallet. Yet, the word brings along the underlying attributes tied to that word (e.g. private, related to money, portable, etc.). Most of the technology you use today has an underlying metaphor that helps guide behavior.

* * * * *

Metaphors are powerful devices for storytelling. That’s the standard narrative. But little attention is given to how much in our life is influenced by them. Their omnipresence can make them difficult to spot. Yet, they are fundamental to our understanding of the world around us. 

By becoming more aware of metaphors we can better understand how we are influenced by language, become more intentional keepers of culture, and see the invisible threads that drive our behavior in the digital realm.