Audience

What we write, as I tell my students, depends partly on our audience. When I was younger, I'd hear people say that I should find out what my teachers wanted and give it to them; that bothered me because it's disingenous; it's pandering. Better advice: find out who my readers are and give them what they can use, as opposed to giving them what they can't even understand. It's not so much about pleasing the reader as about connecting with the reader (which may or may not result in pleasure). And this is the trouble with a blog. I can write to a particular audience--myself, my family, a particular friend or group of friends, or strangers who care about something that matters to me. But I can't guarantee that my intended audience will be the real one. I do keep a journal, privately. I can't imagine posting it on the internet. Occasionally I stumble on a blog when I search for a key word (for instance, a place that matters to me, like Mowana) and I find myself in the middle of some stranger's most intimate musings or rant. I wonder if that person realizes that her father could be reading it, or a potential employer, or a spy. I can understand the impulse to put one's opinions about public issues out to the public, to be heard and possibly to effect some change in the way society functions. I am puzzled by the impulse to pour out one's most private thoughts to the world. It's like leaving your diary lying open on a park bench.
There's something liberating about confessing personal yearnings and anxieties to a stranger--to the lady sitting next to you on the plane or to a therapist. But that liberation comes from knowing the story won't get back to people who really care. (Isn't THAT odd--the liberation of a meaningless audience?) With a blog, there's no guarantee--anyone and everyone might read, or no one at all.
So I'm experimenting with this. What does it feel like to write for an unknown, random audience? What are the odds that someone I know will recognize me in my words or my user name? So far I find myself cautious about content. I might not want my family to know what my colleagues know. I might not want my colleagues to know what my oldest friends know. I might not want my students to know what my family knows. Am I overly compartmentalized, or just wonderfully diversified?