 Noticing Newbies: April 06, 2022 Issue [#11303] |
This week: Authority Edited by: Jeff  
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"You never know what you can do until you try,
and very few try unless they have to."
-- C.S. Lewis
About The Editor: Greetings! My name is Jeff and I'm one of your regular editors for the Noticing Newbies Official Newsletter! I've been a member of Writing.com since 2003, and have edited more than 350 newsletters across the site during that time. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me via email or the handy feedback field at the bottom of this newsletter! 
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Authority
Authority comes in all shapes and sizes. When we're younger, it's often our parents or teachers, other adults or older kids and siblings who shape our ideas of what's allowed and not allowed. When we're older, we often defer to figures like family members with more life experience, employers, community or religious leaders, government, etc. as authorities in certain (or all) areas of our life. Even in places like here on Writing.com, there are often people in positions of authority that we look toward for guidance on certain matters.
Take Moderators+ on this site, as an example. The blue, purple, and red cases that keep things running around here are often authorities on conduct and rules on the site. They have the power to re-rate items appropriately, often times can delete offensive content or set it to private, and are generally viewed as knowledgeable about the site and its operations. Very few Moderators are experts at everything on the site. Some are experienced contest and activity organizers, while others have encyclopedic knowledge of the site's content standards or technical capabilities. Still others are talented writers, skilled communicators who can help mediate disagreements, or savvy reviewers who know how to analyze material. Does that mean that all Moderators+ are authorities on everything? Hardly.
And yet people often mistake Moderators+ for having implied authority in multiple areas. Over what or how you write. Over how you spend your time on the site. Moderators and Senior Moderators have been promoted to their position for possessing certain qualities that impact the overall experience on the site. Not all Moderators contribute in the same way, and they're certainly not Moderators because they're better than everyone else. In fact, most Moderators are humble enough to acknowledge that they have limitations and weaknesses as much as anybody else! Moderators are not in their positions to pass judgment on what you say or do on the site (unless you're violating the site's terms and conditions), and it's important to discern what feedback from a Moderator comes from a place of authority (guidance on what's acceptable or unacceptable on the site) and what feedback comes from a place of personal opinion (what they think you should do, no matter how assertively it's presented).
If you look at the site as a microcosm for the rest of your life, the lesson that can be extrapolated is that it's important to have voices of authority in your life, places you can turn to for guidance or assistance while navigating the trials and tribulations of life. But it's equally important to have a healthy understanding of where that authority ends, and where it stops. Authority is very rarely absolute, and most people aren't qualified to be an authority on every aspect of your life. Part of the challenge is figuring out which people are authorities for you on which things, along with when it's appropriate to follow their guidance and when to take their opinions as just that... opinions but not gospel.
Whenever someone presents themselves as an authority on something, make sure you take a fair assessment of their abilities, and decide how much credence you want to lend them. Especially for writers and other creatives, it can be easy to get trapped in a cycle where you're constantly just responding to what other people think you should be doing, rather than pursuing your own instincts and interests. As artists, it's important to understand when authority is positive (e.g., guiding your learning and growth, meeting the expectations of your audience, etc.), and when it's a negative (e.g., people imposing their own thoughts, beliefs, and opinions on you).
Not respecting authority enough is a problem. But so is giving it more deference than it deserves.
In our art and in our lives, it's important to be aware of the sources of authority in our lives, and to constantly evaluate that authority to make sure it continues to align with our beliefs and our goals, as well as the expectations others have of us.
Until next time,
Jeff
If you're interested in checking out my work:
"Blogocentric Formulations"
"New & Noteworthy Things"
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