Audience does make a difference: Wired magazine says so.

Actually it's not Wired per se, but Clive Thompson, author of Smarter Than You Think, excerpted in this month's issue of Wired. Titled "Thinking Out Loud", it's about how the Internet as a public forum has contributed to social, civic, and academic advances. More people than ever are writing because it's easier to reach--or even just to imagine--an audience. The built-in audience of the Internet is causing people to publish, and once published, enabling them to find each other. Even if most of what's out there is drivel, he argues, there's more good stuff, too. And the smart people and good ideas are connecting with each other in a way that they never have before.

In the middle of the article, he mentions a number of studies that prove that having an authentic audience makes thinkers and writers jump up. From pre-schoolers to college students and presumably beyond, people tend to think and express themselves with greater care and clarity when they present their ideas to an audience that matters to them, as opposed to an audience that doesn't matter, or no audience at all. So glad he agrees with me. Definitely worth a read.