Behind the Screen Audience

To know your audience you must ask questions. No matter the atmosphere, the fear of looking stupid prompts a “follow the leader” mind set, as a sigh of relief calms the heart rate when the first post includes “favorite”. The predominant factor of the remaining questions was just that; “What is your favorite….?” In my world, it left the intellectual questions representing bravery and honesty to dig into the audience by seeking more than a canned answer. The entire assignment was enlightening. ENG 101‑W06 classmates share common generalized interests such as social circles where family is first, found memories of family that impact our favorites, an environmental awareness of creation among us, and the desire to escape whenever time allows (for most of us that is simply a dream).   

My opinion of the discussion board atmosphere lies between the lines primarily due to various factors encompassing someone’s life, such as: busy family schedules causing for short responses, an overall consistency of who was in the top 5 to post early & respond early, and who started off strong but ended weak on their responses and sadly who chose not to respond to the “tardy” student. 

It has been my experience in life that the tardy student often has quite the insight if given a chance to redeem. I found myself reading this student’s post a few different times with that same fear of “looking stupid” for being the one to initiate inclusion. I also wasn’t the first one to respond yet humbly followed days later. As crazy as it may seem, I was testing this hypothesis.  Sadly, I observed no one had followed the brave lead of one classmate. Analyzing an audience from behind the screen is difficult as the “body language” makes it nearly impossible to conclude reliable opinions. I then furthered my research by paying attention to the tardy student’s responses, as I expected her validating my original opinion, insightful and intellectual. Although I didn’t share some of the same opinions or favorites, I found myself growing in my writing skills. 

What I mean is this: I analyzed my audience deeper than I originally began, much like others, starting off strong and fizzling out. This student opened my eyes to my own self audience (if that’s even a real word). Classmates seem to attract like cliques, even behind a screen, myself included. I tend to stay within a comfort zone aiming to please by molding my answer to acceptance among my peers. Needless to say I have learned the hard way over the years that it’s better to listen than speak. I sought out the ones that shared some of my same beliefs or similar interests and feared not the openness for discussion. However I found the true enjoyment by reading between the lines and testing my opinion(s). Further testing included my response of a politically incorrect line of work as my favorite job; I came out of a comfort zone and invaded my own privacy, contrary to Ms. A’s advice.  This was a post where “reply to reply” was evident.  Coming out of a comfort zone is the best way to learn and analyze your surroundings.  In this case, I should have listened.     

What are our comfort zones? Some do not touch on emotional topics or responses while others seek the common ground of impact. I noticed this “follow the lead” experiment more prevalent in the question, “Who is your Hero?”  The responses reflected high percentage sentimental aspects; leaving little room for anything but a politically correct answer, one who had empathy. Those that didn’t share the same kind of experience were answering short and sweet with no indications of comic book characters like most kid like hearts would be inclined to say. The kid-like hearts were prevalent in questions like “What is your favorite cereal?” or “What is your favorite T.V. Show?” as many included things like marshmallows and comedy. Releasing laughter is often referred to as an emotion more easily expressed in children.  This reiterates the brilliant selection our instructor imposed as writing groups were formed; a variation of talent, different styles of writing, weakness countering strengths and just enough common grounds to pose unity while stepping out of a comfort zone for learning. 

Writing is about knowing your audience, selecting a topic of interest and creating a thesis, otherwise referred to as the rhetorical triangle.  My fellow classmates are perfect.  There is enough diversity to hold interest however walls of fear could hinder our writing to the correct audience.  We all seem to have an interest in writing, share similar busy schedules that limit our ability to analyze body language of our audience and the initial excitement of an assignment with the ending fizzle of procrastination.  I believe this leaves a great responsibility on the writers to capture the attention quickly yet knowing when the posts are too short to gather valuable information or too long to read effectively. 

I noticed that most (classmates) started off responding to everyone and as the week progressed and life demands restricted fulfillment of our desire to obtain extra credit as well as feeding our audience and caused for the “give up” mode which behind a screen can seem inconsiderate.  Let’s face it; in today’s method of communication of behind a screen, the right way to express a sheepish, apologetic face is to text the correct smiley face with a hint of blush.  Now that wouldn’t go over well with the grade or would it?