Notifications: A Reason To Get Out Of Bed In The Morning
You’re missing the best part of Medium if you don’t read them.
I’d been on Medium a while before I figured out Notifications. Because I lug around a massive guilt complex thanks to my Catholic upbringing, I was sure the number next to my photo meant Ev Williams was sending me messages that I was doing everything wrong and probably breaking Medium. Would I please stop?
One day, I rustled up the courage to actually click on the little bell and read a message from a reader. OMFG. Someone actually liked one of my articles. How did I not know they could do this, you know, let me know, and that I could, you know, read their comment?
Simple. I didn’t read the instructions.
Anyway, since I discovered the true meaning of life and that it is my notifications every morning, I have a reason to go on. In these days of uncertainty and lunkheads who go about maskless, that’s yuge.
So, for you who don’t understand the bell next to your profile pic, let me explain. It is the sad way this monolith that is Medium has come up with to let us communicate with each other. A tapping on the walls to see if anyone is listening if you will.
I know, you’d think someone with the smarts of Ev Williams would figure out a way for Medium members to send each other messages the way other social media platforms do. But you know, maybe he’s not familiar with Twitter! (It’s supposed to be a joke!)
Anyway, when we want to write to one another, we leave a comment on one of our articles, then the Medium masterminds raps on our wall or tinkles our bell, and the numbers next to our photo accumulate until we read the notifications and the counting starts anew.
As far as I know, the notifications remain in our feed forever. So perhaps I could scroll down, if I had forever and a day to waste, and read those early messages I missed before I figured out they didn’t mean I was in trouble with Medium.
But I digress, as little old ladies are wont to do. This isn’t a manual on how to get Medium to work (first plug it in, then take part A…). You’ll find that elsewhere.
I want to tell you the reason I fly to my computer each morning to read my notifications. It’s the people, people.
Through Notifications, I discover if anyone is reading my articles, but also if anyone is moved enough to make a comment. Often, a few of my faithful followers will read and say hello, which always warms my heart. But then I might also get nice surprise from someone new sending a message out of the blue via the comments.
Who is this person? I click on their profile to find out. Sometimes, it’s a writer who’s been on Medium for years with a loyal following and a long list of wonderful articles. As I wonder how they found me, I do my gratitude dance that they did. Well, I don’t really dance anymore. Old knees. But in my mind, I’m jigging my head off that someone out in the wilds of cyberspace is reaching out to me.
Oh, and speaking of digressing, which I was a while ago. That bit about flying to my computer in the morning? Metaphor alert. I’m not flying anywhere these days, bunky, and neither should you or soon there won’t be enough vaccine in the known universe to keep up with all the cases, what with all the anti-vaxxers and scared vaxxers. Don’t get me started.
Where was I? My point here, actually, is to give a shout out to some wonderful writers I’ve discovered through my Notifications. It’s the easiest way to discover friends on Medium that I know of, and I answer every message sent to me.
Also, if you want to make your day, start leaving comments on the articles you read and see what pops up in your Notifications, that is if you don’t have an overflowing of goodness already.
Here are a few favorite writers who showed up in mine recently.
As yet, Brad doesn’t have any articles yet to recommend. I discovered him this morning because he left a comment on my piece about why I didn’t finish NaNo.
His note left me a bit breathless with admiration for him. I’ll summarize here: Brad is 75 and high risk for catching the virus. So he went into lockdown in March, which explains why he didn’t do NaNo in November. I was puzzled at that until in the next line he explained that he began his NaNo at Easter. Hold on. Since then, he has completed seven novels and umpteen short stories. He is in the process of editing them to publish on Kindle.
From now on, when I start to carp about having to give up the gym or regular haircuts, I’m going to remember Brad giving the metaphorical finger to the virus and not letting it get in the way of him rocking his life.
I hope Brad will write to us all when he starts publishing so we can join Team Brad and rocket his books to the bestseller list.
Natalie Frank was one of the first people I discovered on Medium, and I followed her like a stalker. She seemed to write about anything and everything. Thanks to her generous nature, I also learned a great deal about how to navigate Medium.
I commented on many of her articles on topics ranging from science fiction, poetry, psychology, fiction, and personal essays. However, months passed before she showed up in my Notifications. I felt as though I’d won the lottery. Natalie noticed me!!!
Since then, we have found ourselves in several Facebook groups for Medium writers, and it was through that connection that I discovered her posts about contracting the virus and her subsequent hospitalization.
If I didn’t think she was a boss before, her account of writing a poem during her delirium and then reading that amazing powm sealed the deal for me.
If you don’t know Natalie’s work, I highly recommend you check out this charming, engaging polymath whose heart is as big as her brain.
One joy of Notifications is the announcement that someone has mentioned you in an article. The other day I clicked one such message from Sowmya. Her name was unknown to me, but I began to read her piece about Joe Biden, connecting his presidency to the idea that we’re never too old to…fill in the blanks.
It’s a subject near and dear to me, being 81 and all. To my surprise, the author had referred to me further down. While I was flattered, the line that had me flat on my back––again, Metaphor Alert. If I get down on the floor these days, I need a team of paramedics to get me to my feet again. Back to the awesome Sowmya.
This articulate, wise writer is a 16-year-old high school student from, hmmm could be Florida, could be India, could be Bulkarn (my fake town in my Irish novels). I can’t find it on her About page.
Wherever she lives, reading her perspective on life gave me hope for a future I’ll never live long enough to see. A sixteen-year-old reading an octogenarian and commenting on a prescription for living your best life. That should rightly take some of us old fogies down a peg, those of us who think we know it all.
She has a number of articles and edits a publication on mindfulness. Dismiss young people as frivolous purveyors of cacophonous music designed to make grownups tear their hair out at your peril.
Sowmya has it going on. She’s only 16. Imagine what she’ll be like at 17.
When I get a notice that Estacious, aka Charles White, clapped or commented on an article, I feel like I’ve won a gold star or moved to the head of the class. Teachers have a way of doing that to me.
I first discovered his writing in a Facebook group and took notice of all the writers who said beautiful things about his articles. We join these groups to learn and get support for our writing. Often, we hear the same things about our pieces. Good job. Nicely done.
But then comments about a particular writer stand out, and you realize the group is talking about someone who resides at the moral center of Medium.
We have many, lucky for us, and Estacious stands tall among them.
He writes about politics, the pandemic, the racial divide in America, family, writing, and his experience of being alive at this time in the cycle of life.
I could say his gravitas comes from his 23 years as a teacher. Or perhaps he became a teacher because of his seriousness of purpose. I don’t know him well enough to give you an answer. I just know that when I read his work, I am enriched, humbled, and enlightened.
The guidelines of Reading Rhombus requires that we name four Medium writers in our pieces. Writing about Notifications has been on my to-do list because it has become a source of pleasure in my life. I wanted to alert readers who overlook it how elated I am when I wake to a high number of pings, and sad when only a few people have left notes in my box.
Yet, like the carrot, regardless of the number, Notifications keeps me coming back, because that’s one of the best places to find my friends. I have so many other names I could have listed in this piece. I’ve mentioned a few of them in other pieces, so I decided to find new writers here.
If I had permission, though, I would have named among the lights in my Notifications, my perennial faves. Carol Piasente, Andrew Jazprose Hill, C Hardin Hansen, Sherry McGuinn, Jenny Justice, Kristi Keller, Roy, kurt gasbarra, Marguerite Floyd, Susan Brearley, Ann Litts, Rasheed Hooda and so many others.
These people know they have my admiration, but check them out if you want to find out why.
I’m an editor and writer on Medium with Top Writer status. I’m also an editor for the publication, Rogues Gallery and manage my own pub, The Daily Writing Coach. I’ve published 55 titles on Amazon and edit for private clients. If you’d like to hire me as your editor for fiction, non-fiction, or business writing, please contact me here. If you’d like to read more of my work on Medium, click here to sign up for my newsletter. Thank you for reading and stay safe.