(yes, you!)
As everyday people, we find ourselves constantly under attack. Every organization, from government to corporations to utilities, is trying to get us to behave a certain way. If we let these very powerful (and sometimes frightening) entities do it, they will push us until we find we no longer have a voice. Where am I going with this? Let me explain.
I remember about 15 years ago as I was driving down Main Street in Mesa, AZ I passed a larger Chevrolet dealership called Brown & Brown. (I actually worked there for about a year and a half at one point). Standing in front of the dealership on this busy Saturday afternon was a small group of people all holding large signs. I assume they were a group of friends, or perhaps a family. The signs read “Brown & Brown Chevy Rips You OFF!” and “Don’t buy from Brown & Brown”. Now apparently one (or more) of these people had a disagreement with the dealership over services or products rendered by the dealership, and weren’t getting the results they believed were required through traditional channels.
Protesters
Now you would be right in saying a company such as this one doesn’t want people out in front displaying negative advertising. But our country is set up so that an everyday average person can speak out about anyone or anything without fearing reprisals. I’m willing to bet the dealership worked something out with those people. If they hadn’t protested the way they did, they may never have gotten what they wanted, and of course the dealership would have been more than happy with that.
On to my point. The invention of the internet has had far-reaching ramifications in numerous ways, most of which are beyond the scope of this blog. But the First Amendment has always been my favorite amendment, and the impact of the internet on this has been huge. Never before in the history of humanity has a single person such as myself been able to reach a potential audience of millions basically for free.
You should start your own blog, and yes you can talk about gardening, your pets, your grandkids, whatever. But when something happens in your daily life that you think is just wrong, or you feel like you’ve been taken advantage of, write it on your blog. I have done so in the past, with some success. I have railed against my phone company, against the Post Office, and of course against the government. If you think nobody cares, you’re wrong. Your blog post can reach millions of other people, and trust me: a organization may get away with 1 dissatisfied customer, but no organization wants millions of people standing up as one voice to speak out against them.
molly
Harriet Cotter
dotlizard
The Aviator
Eric
The Sexy Angie
Julian
How very true, I can attest to that. I was taken advantage of years ago by a car dealership. I wrote a letter to my representative (John McCain at the time). He actually responded and several months later that dealership was no longer in business. So a “WORD” can go a long way. So blogging or write an e-mail to someone and make your voice heard.
You are right, will start my first blog soon.
Very true. I spoke out once about how much AVG 8.0 (the antivirus) sucked on my blog and got responses from the owners and employees at AVG. The offered a free license and to fix any problem I encountered. To this day AVG still hasn’t fixed the issue, and people still leave comments saying how much AVG sucks now.
I couldn’t agree with you more. I started my blog up a while ago and then forgot about it. I’ve recently gotten back into it though and am quite excited to see where I go with it.
My main concern at this point is that “It’s my frikkin opinion about stuff” isn’t a viable category for many blog listing services.
I completely agree with you though, everyone who has an opinion and is afraid to get it out there, for whatever reason, is doing themselves a huge disservice.