Expressing Your Opinion in the Digital Age
A single voice among the roar of the crowd
We are living in a digital age that gives anyone with a computer and internet connection the means to express their opinion to billions of other people.
There is an ocean of websites and blogs oriented toward user content.
For example, newyorktimes.com receives 9,000 submitted reader comments per day.
Most opinion posts are “reactive.” We read something and want to express our own view.
In addition, there’s a dark zone of troll posts that are deliberately written to get an outraged response.
But what if you feel so strongly about an issue that you want to educate other people and/or change their opinions? How do you write and present a message in a way that will persuade people to read and consider your ideas?
That was the problem I faced when I decided to write a free eBook about how governments and corporations destroy our privacy and monitor our lives.
Creating and publishing Against Authority: Freedom and the Rise of the Surveillance States was a quick education on how to express my opinion in our digital age.
What do you believe… and why?
An essay of opinion can be about anything. You can tell us why the city shouldn’t put a parking lot in that park near your house or why it’s cruel to declaw cats.
But every opinion essay by every author starts with the same process. You need to sit down with your computer or a pad of paper and write down a list of bullet points regarding what you believe regarding your particular issue. Then you should list why you believe each point.
The why explanation for your opinions is crucial because you’re going to be communicating with strangers — not family and friends. Saying “I’ve always believed this” or “Everyone knows this is true” isn’t going to change any minds.
Most people who went to high school have had some contact with the five-paragraph essay form. Your topic paragraph tells what you’re going to say, the next three paragraphs present three points and then the final paragraph sums it all up.
Even a hundred-page essay follows the same form: this is what I need to tell you, here are my facts and examples, and this section summarizes what you just read.
Getting the reader’s attention
It is crucial to grab your reader’s attention at the beginning of your essay. Humans are story-telling animals and a strong way to start your essay is to describe a true-life incident that relates to the theme of your essay.
Against Authority begins with an incident from my childhood: when I was a small child, I was the subject of a neurological experiment run by a university. Telling this story helped me show how being watched and manipulated by a powerful authority can touch an individual’s life.
So what about your essay? You probably have a personal connection to an issue that’s important to you. Write down that memory and turn it into a story.
Why they need to know
It’s easy to spend our time on websites and blogs where everyone but trolls agrees with our particular world view.
But the strongest opinion essays are written for readers who either don’t know about your particular issue and/or haven’t formed a strong opinion about it yet.
As strangers read your essay, they’re going to ask themselves: But what does this issue mean to me? Answering that question forces you to step away from your own particular viewpoint. You need to see the world from someone else’s perspective.
In Against Authority, I tried to focus on the way that pervasive electronic surveillance is going to directly touch our lives. For example:
Different companies are selling devices that are worn like high-tech dog collars by office employees. The devices will tell management who you’ve talked to that day, how often you’ve left your cubicle and how long you’ve stayed in the employee restroom.
And you won’t be safe in the restroom either. Procter & Gamble is selling the Safeguard Germ Alarm, a sensor inside a soap dispenser. An alarm starts ringing when you leave a toilet stall and it stops only when you push the soap-dispensing button.
Let your readers decide
Personal blogs and social media websites that use reader content encourage a particular kind of communication. An issue is presented or a news story is described and then readers comment.
Expressing an opinion without facts may give us a feeling of power, but it rarely changes someone’s mind. Offering facts to your reader is far more effective than offering your opinion. For example:
In Against Authority I used statistics to put the terrorist threat in perspective. Information from the Global Terrorism Database shows that the odds of an American dying from a terrorist attack in the last five years have been about 1 in 20 million. But according to a 2011 report from the National Counterterrorism Center, Americans are just as likely to be crushed to death by their flat-screen television sets.
Instead of telling your readers what to think, present facts that will give them a reason to change their minds.
Challenge your readers
If you’ve done your job right, then you’re ready for the best part of your essay. This is when you challenge your readers to do something. And that doesn’t always mean signing a petition or going on a march. Ask your readers to do something that’s simple, basic — but profound. Ask them to demonstrate the value of their new opinion.
In Against Authority I state that no one in a digital society can truly “live off the grid.” Then I show my readers how to create parallel lives — some public (using a credit card) and some private (using a peer-to-peer payment system).
Can you summarize what you just wrote?
Before you’re ready to “go public” with your essay you might want to show your work to a few of your friends. Your readers don’t need to agree with you. But they can tell you if you are communicating your points effectively.
After a rewrite or two, you’re ready to boil your essay down to one paragraph. This summary is a much shorter version of the essay, describing (1) Why you’ve written the essay, (2) What it’s about and (3) Why someone might want to read it. Here’s my summary for Against Authority:
In both his novels and in his 2005 essay, How We Live Now, John Twelve Hawks was one of the first authors to warn us about the growing power of surveillance technology. Now he has written Against Authority: a personal and controversial book that shows how our lives are watched and analyzed by governments and corporations. In a world in which our actions can be monitored by a computerized grid of social control, is there anything we can do to defend our freedom?
Once you’re done with the summary, you’re ready to publish your essay on the internet.
But how do you draw attention to what you’ve written?
Want attention? Think visual
Attending various marches and demonstrations in New York City, I encountered a woman named Marni Halasa, a self-described “professional protestor” who has become skilled at using witty homemade costumes to attract attention to the issues that are important to her. (Marni’s photo is at the top of this page and I recommend that you take a look at her Revolution Is Sexy website.)
Marni has learned the first rule of political engagement: you need to project a quick visual message that will stop someone from walking away from you. Once people stop and look, they’re ready to listen.
After I had written my essay, I spent a great deal of time thinking about the visual image that would sum up Against Authority. I hired a young designer named Pete Garceau and described to him what I was looking for: a book jacket that suggested a protest message painted with a stencil on a wall. Here’s what Pete created:
If you don’t have the budget for professional designer, download one of your own photos or get a free image from shutterstock.com.
You’re looking for a visual image that’s both powerful and informative.
Changing others… and yourself
Now that you’ve got your essay, a summary, and a great visual image, you’re ready to find readers. I went through a three-step process.
First, I put my eBook up on my personal website: johntwelvehawks.com.
Then I offered a section of the essay to websites eager for free content. Salon.com agreed to post an excerpt.
Finally, I self-published Against Authority as a free eBook on Amazon.
So why should you do this?
We always have a choice in a free society — to stay silent or express our opinion.
Complaining only takes us a short distance. It’s a more powerful response to offer a solution. Our actions can change the world and transform our own lives.
John Twelve Hawks has written a personal and controversial book that shows how our lives are watched and analyzed by governments and international corporations.
In a world in which our actions can be monitored by a computerized grid of social control, is there anything we can do to defend our freedom?
Against Authority is available as a free download at JohnTwelveHawks.com, Google Books, BN.com, Kobo, or Amazon.
