During the time I’ve been writing my blog, I’ve realised it’s not been entirely easy. Coming up with ideas is one thing but when to post them and how to write them is another. Throughout my blog posts one thing that is continuously at the back of my mind which is actually quite crucial is my audience or readership. Part of my audience who read my blog posts are people that I know including some family members and a few of my friends. I am conscious of the fact I don’t want to write anything that would cause offence to them particularly if a post may contain stuff with any of them involved or in mind, it might just be an event which I relate which involves someone who reads my posts, if I relate it incorrectly or inaccurately, it could be deemed inappropriate and I might unwittingly cause offence which could even be due to misinterpretation.
I also have a wider audience of people I don’t know, I don’t know their backgrounds outlooks on life their beliefs or persuasions. Can I write with them in mind?
Another area where audience is something that rumbles on in the background is in the realm of social media, in some groups I’m in you don’t know your audience or you may know some, I find that it can be easy to forget that it isn’t just you and a few of your mates reading your posts it’s people from all walks of life, cultures and systems. With that in mind you find you have to think carefully before you post or comment on a post because you really don’t know your audience. Sometimes you see people come out with statements which are purely black and white without any thought to the people reading them. A thought is stated without much filter. People feel they can get away with saying what they want because they don’t see or know their audience, I mean it doesn’t matter, I mean the audience and the person messaging or posting may never meet. That appears to be the mentality from some I’ve seen. I’m not saying that anyone who posts comments things in this way are deliberately setting out to upset people or shock people, but maybe a small proportion need the attention of an unfiltered remark to get the acceptance or attention they need.
I’ve also seen this where public speaking is taking place, the person speaking has no thought about how to address their audience, who they are speaking too, for instance I know there have been several occasions where a speaker has made unkind comments about people who live in a particular area of the country and it wasn’t in jest either, fine if that is a comedy event that sets out its about knocking the area your living in, but not in general meetings or conferences. I sometimes wonder if people who are involved in public speaking in any way are trained to think about their audience.
Filtering is normally necessary in social media, blogging or public speaking or in most forms of communication because by its very nature it’s public. In private you have the freedom to say what you want, in public that’s a different matter. Does that mean that we have to censor everything we say, no of course not, it’s purely about thinking about how those who do these things deliver what they are going to say to the audience or readers they are dealing with at the time. I’m not suggesting here you always have to walk on eggshells all the time, but you have to test the temperature of the people your addressing,before running headlong into saying or writing something that hits between the eyes or ears. Believe me when I say at times I wish I had applied wisdom to something I’ve either said or written and thought I wish I hadn’t of said or wrote that. So first consider whether they would be ready to read or hear that or not, as the old saying goes there’s a time to speak and a time not too. Remember though that no matter how much thought you put in what you are going to say or write you can’t guarantee that you won’t offend or hurt someone sometimes. Well with all that in mind and so much to ponder I think it’s time for me to sign off before I write anything that might offend anybody 😀
contrarytan 