I’m going to have a bit of a rant today, but the meaning behind it is (in my opinion) very important. As a 16 year old I am the target audience for the national radio station, BBC Radio 1. I often get asked by friends why it is that I don’t listen to it. In many cases my answer is usually something along the lines of:
Why should I?
I get so angry by the fact that people expect me to listen to this radio station, simply because I am part of its target audience. Target audience means nothing. Assuming that every 16 year old listens to Radio 1 is like saying that every 16 year old is the same. (For the record, they’re not).
The conversation usually moves on to me having to explain why I listen to BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio Gloucestershire: Its my decision as to what I listen to, I have chosen to listen to Radio 2 because I enjoy the music and intelligent (to a certain extent) chat.
In some cases people will understand the reasons and move on. However in other cases people don’t understand that I am myself and have no interest in listening to what most other 16 years old in the country think I should like.
I was having a conversation on MSN yesterday… and something came up in the conversation which made me realise what is so right about my opinions:
We never really make a decision, do we: our decisions are ultimatley already made, defined by who we are… Decisions are made based on emotional and logical impulses in our brain, which will happen based on who we are. So technically, we never really have a choice, because the answer is already made based on the state of our brains.
We are powerless. Our life is not led by our decisions, but by merely who we were when we were born.
Every decision we thought we had made, has actually been defined by our brains as machines to logically and emotionally decide for us.
Unknown source
I haven’t got a clue where this quote came from: they may be words copied and pasted from the Internet. They may even be Adam‘s own words.
Where they are from however, is irrelevant and away from the point. I have quoted that text to explain my “decision” to listen to BBC Radio 2 instead of BBC Radio 1, but it could explain so many other things.
I’m currently listening to the story of a Gloucestershire ex-drug addict on John Rockley‘s radio show at the moment and the same theory could be applied here.
To summarise: I never chose to listen to BBC Radio 2 – its the fact that I was born that made the decision for me. In addition, those involved with drugs never chose to be. They need help. Not punishment.
The image used was created by Flickr member “Oberazzi” and has been used under a Creative Commons license.
I am 46 years old, and I started listening to Radio 2 regularly because I’d got fed up with Radio 1 playing all this rap stuff.
Just to be clear you seemed to have misunderstood the entire of our conversation yesterday…
I wasn’t trying to force you to listen to Radio 1 or anything, I was merely trying to ask you to give it a chance, something which you yourself admitted to not doing due to your stereotypical views on it. I also wasn’t trying to stop you listening to Radio 2 either.
“I get so angry by the fact that people expect me to listen to this radio station, simply because I am part of its target audience. Target audience means nothing. Assuming that every 16 year old listens to Radio 1 is like saying that every 16 year old is the same. (For the record, theyre not).”
I do not, in any way, expect you to listen to Radio 1. All I was trying to say, is that you need to throw away your stereotypical and prejudiced views, and actually give it a chance, rather than ignoring it completely as a way to make a stand.
And just to add, the quote on the blog was just me putting forward a concept, my actual views on how we make decisions are different to that.
P.S. Watch the matrix trilogy: they’re my own words, but the concept came from the films.
No, I haven’t misundersood the conversation.
In fact, that quote was not even about you… although had I written it before our conversation yesterday, it could have been. It was directed at everyone else who has said to me that I should listen to Radio 1. Other members of our age group all over the country were the intended recipients.
Part of that paragraph was written as a reply to those of the older generations who have the view that all 16 year olds are the same and do exactly the same day in, day out.