Know Your Audience

     The game 20 Questions can easily turn into a boring, what's your favorite color or what's your favorite food, series of facts that really mean nothing about a person. It can be difficult to draw an individual out, although sometimes the other person will unwittingly reveal something deeper, hidden inside a simple fact or statement. For example, E. Kirsten George responded to Ms. A's question of "What color is your personality" with blue/green with a red core, but also stated in her explanation that her mother is Irish and German. On the surface, this doesn't mean much to someone trying to get to know her, but the fact that she chose to bring that up in the few sentences she had to describe herself reveals that she gives significant weight to her ancestry or history, likely believing one's past greatly influences their present and future. What this means for me, having E. Kirsten in my audience, is that I could probably reach her best using details and facts that have been proven over time.
    I enjoyed reading the responses to Christina Benavides' question "What do you wish to achieve in 5 years", because that disclosed the others' priorities. Whether they said they would want to have a successful career, or happy children, or to travel, knowing the audience's priorities is possibly one of the most important factors to reaching their minds and hearts. If I am talking about how global warming will considerably affect our children's futures for the worse, but the person I am speaking to has no children nor wants any, it will be easily dismissed by them. Of course, there were responses like Clarissa Kyle's, which was rather vague and lacking enthusiasm, saying she hopes to "have a higher education on the way to [her] career path". I would have to say I don't know if she knows exactly what she wants, or if she has picked a career/path in life, it doesn't seem like she is very excited or passionate about it. Responding with passion does not always work in this situation, but it is possible to find something to give this kind of people that they can be enthusiastic about. Then, once the heart and emotions are involved, the mind and logic usually will follow.
    My curiosity was peaked when I read Trevor Renshaw's question "what do you hope to leave behind when you leave this life", because it made me draw the conclusion that he must have some definitive beliefs for what happens after death to have stated his question so. I don't know if it was a great question, since the answers were almost completely uniform-something to do with leaving behind knowledge or love or some reason to have been remembered. Although, on that note, I can use the fact that everyone seems to be on the same page here. Give them some reason, some way, to become a better person, to be loved, to be remembered, and I bet I will reach them.
    I was disappointed by the responses to my question, "what is your favorite book". I realized I should have specified "novel", but oh well. I suppose in a way it did still reveal the interests of my audience, but I still wish they could have picked some deeper novels. I can't gain much from knowing they like The Hunger Games, or Twilight, or The Chronicles of Narnia. They like fantasy and dystopian societies, I guess. I'm not sure how to use that, though.