Good Day Class

Without further ado, I give you Lance.

“Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.” ~ Rudyard Kipling

Thank you, Barbara.

Students, please note: Even though we are talking about snowballs, there will be NO snowball fights going on during class!

Today’s Lesson

Our words, they are indeed powerful. Today, we’ll be discussing the wide-ranging effect these words can have, and how this may or may not change how we write.

We blog.

We comment.

We share photos.

We Twitter. We Facebook. We email.

We connect via the telephone.

We meet in person.

(and probably a myriad of other ways)

The Snowball Effect: is a figurative term for a process that starts from an initial state of small significance and builds upon itself, becoming larger (graver, more serious), and perhaps potentially dangerous or disastrous (a vicious circle, a “spiral of decline”), though it might be beneficial instead (a virtuous circle). Source: Wikipedia

What we each do here on the World Wide Web has the potential to take on this snowball effect. Our words, our voices – they are not islands unto themselves. There are no walls that keep these words within a confined space. They become more like that note in a bottle, dropped into the sea. Drifting maybe to be viewed only by an island just off shore, or drifting maybe to be viewed many times the world over. And we never really know exactly where these words of ours have traveled.

Writing here on the Internet – our words can travel to faraway lands.

Our voice is heard, and our reach is wide – for each and every one of us. We can’t really tell how far our words may travel, and to whom they might touch in some significant way.

Like a snowball, growing bigger and bigger as it moves on – so too our words move on to a larger and larger group of people hearing them. Some move and grow faster than others. The point, though, is that when we put something out there on this social web, we really don’t know how large the audience base seeing that message will grow to be. Or where it may travel.

Today’s Assignment
The words we say can snowball into something greater (in a good or a bad way). And that’s in all our interactions on this web we call the Internet, a web we’ve all become a part of.

Does this thought change how or what you write?

Do you think about what you write and how it might portray you? Does it matter?

Do you care how your words might affect someone else reading them? Does that matter?

When Lance isn’t on his blog, Jungle of Life, you can find him making the rounds in blogosphere, leaving meaningful comments on dozens of blogs or tweeting on Twitter. Check out his blog, check out his archives, check out his tweets. You’ll be happy you did.

Photo Credit:House Of Sims