When you write something, particularly something that you write daily which is basically a stream of consciousness, then your inspiration comes from various different places. Often your inspiration for what you write is not directly listed in the writing.
People can easily misinterpret the writing, which sometimes is ok because sometimes it provokes fantastic discussion of imagination.
An ideal example of this is J.R.R Tolkien and his story Lord of The Rings. If you are a geek like me and have read the writer’s notes for Lord of The Rings then you would understand that when the book was released, soon after the Second World War, there was much speculation that the bad guy (Sauron) was in fact a representation of Hitler. In the writer’s notes Tolkien is keen to dispel this utterly and says basically that Sauron is just a bad guy in a story. The story is just a story, Frodo is not a foot soldier and is not in anyway related to the War.
This is a classic example, what the author has written has been interpreted entirely differently by the people that have read it based on their own circumstances and experiences.
Some time ago in the blog I wrote about Orthodontics and Orthodontists in the UK (a subject I still feel quite strongly about as far as NHS funding is concerned) It is fair to say that it upset one or two people but the most interesting part of it was when I was confronted by an Orthodontist who told me that it was clear that the blog was written about them. It absolutely was not written about the Orthodontist in question. The Orthodontist then proceeded to tell me that they had taken legal advice on the blog and whether it was defamatory, even though the blog was not written about them at all.
If and where possible in this blog I will try to reference where, and where appropriate, an individual who has been the inspiration for me. If I don’t do that then the blog is general topic. If you see yourself in a blog that is written about a negative subject then perhaps the fault does not lie with me, but the fault lies with you and the way that you see yourself.
And so to the point of this, it was brought to my attention in the last couple of days that the Stage Show blog was written about a particular individual and the truth is, this was absolutely was not. In fact the problem with social media is not related to someone it is related to everyone (myself included) I constantly battle at home with my youngest daughter about the negative impacts of social media. I have taken a long time to consider and examine the impacts of social media on my own life and a balance between whether they are positive or negative.
There is no doubt that you could write a list of positive things about social media and things that have worked for you. But if you were to be honest about the negative impact of social media on yourself, on your children and on society as a whole, I think the balance would fall in favour of the negative.
It is my belief that this generation will look back on the ‘social media era’ and laugh. They will be amazed at how we sold our souls and had our attention taken away to something that is so toxic, detrimental and time consuming. But that said the blog was not said about someone in particular, it was about everybody who checks social media first thing in the morning, last thing at night and during their lunch break.
If the truth be told it was about the person who nearly bumped into me on the way to work, walking down that beautiful grassy lane in the middle of summer, looking at Facebook on their phone; not in any way aware of the surroundings.
Funny that other people think of themselves in the blog but then again there is nothing I can do about that except to stop writing and I will not be doing that any time soon.
Blog Post Number - 1347
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