Saturday 3 October 2015

"But you're not scared of

having strangers read your blog" someone tweeted to me yesterday. We had been having a short exchange about editing and I had mentioned that what I am currently working on scares me a bit. 
It is going to need a professional eye. I suspect it is somewhat disjointed  -  but that may be the nature of the thing.
But no, the idea of strangers reading my blog does not frighten me. Why should it? I choose what I say here. If people don't like it they don't need to read it. 
It is the same with writing letters to the editor. If you are frightened of strangers reading those letters why would you bother to write one? 
When I write such a letter I choose what I say - and I don't always agree with myself. I know. That sounds odd but there are other reasons for writing letters to the editor.  Sometimes it is important to try and get a more balanced view "out there". Not everyone is going to agree and many people won't read it but if one more person thinks about something different - even if they then reject it - isn't that a good thing? 
I will word such a letter carefully. If someone comes back at me and says, "But you said..." or "But you believe..." I can say, "No, that is not what I said" or "No, that is not what I believe." Reading comprehension skills over breakfast can be poor though. People will respond with arguments about what they believe was said.
Writing a letter or writing a blog post or sending a "tweet" or putting up some other sort of words or pictures on social media is, somehow, much less personal than talking to someone face to face or addressing a crowd from a stage. I don't like "talking in public" but the idea of the entire internet audience reading something does not trouble me as much. Perhaps it should.

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