Medium Is A Bit Like Tinder

Here’s why

Let me get one thing straight. I hate dating apps. You‘ll come across many shallow people who want you to come to their house for a “first date”.

Yeahhhh, right. As if. Most guys just want a shortcut to sex.

Generally, there‘s nothing wrong with that per se but if that‘s all you‘re looking for either put that information in your profile or stop texting people who say “no sex dates, not looking for a friends of benefits type of situation“. Instead, find someone who matches your crazy.

What sucks is that I‘m not on any dating apps and yet, I have to play according to the same rules.

Here‘s how Tinder translates to Medium:

The Medium articles we write are the pictures we display on our Tinder profiles, hoping they will appeal to someone who‘ll be curious enough to want to get to know us aka reading our articles.

Getting into publications or being rejected by them is the right or left swipe on Tinder. If our article gets accepted, it‘s a match and we get the chance to find lasting love, which is of course an article going viral. The chances of that happening are microscopically small though. You‘re more likely to bring a dead person back to life.

Claps and responses determine the quality of the first date. Is it going well, is it not? If we receive a lot of claps and responses, it‘s going well. We have some chemistry and we will probably go on a second date again. Unless our date tells us something absolutely horrifying that makes us run for the hills.

Sadly, even if we received a lot of compliments from our date, they might not respond to our messages for an entire week and when they finally do, they said they had a fun time but can’t make any time for us at the moment. Interestingly, our romantic interest has time for tons of other people.

Yes, I am talking about you, The Ascent. We had two wonderful dates and you said you really liked me. I don‘t understand why you are suddenly playing all cold. It really hurts my feelings. *pouting*

But alas, there are other people (publications) I can date and unlike you, they are not afraid to show me how much they are into me.

There‘s Curation. He dances whenever I enter the room and promises to take me on a dream vacation. It‘s the super like on Tinder, showing me that against all odds and all the other competition, I stood out to him. Curation calls me remarkable and extraordinary. He has exquisite taste. And manners!

Unlike publications that never get back to you even though you’ve sent them 5–10 articles or writing requests already. Hasn’t anyone told them that ghosting is detrimental to our physical and emotional wellbeing?

Apparently not.

Sadly, just like Tinder, Medium doesn’t owe you anything. You could stick around for years and never find lasting love (viral articles, an audience, money), and I‘m still trying to come to terms with that.

But guess what, sweetie? You are doing amazing! You are perfect just the way you are and you need no guy to prove that.

Your writing is proof enough.