Sorry Medium, I’m Calling in Sick

My writing is feeling a little under the weather

Storm Beatrice rages outside my troubled room windows. It rained all night heavily, and this wretched wind kept the Sandman away.

I am writing this piece on my phone (thanks to Tony Stubblebine). In the past few weeks, I have found it harder to get up in the morning to write.

It seems like the mood on Medium is getting gloomier lately, but I’m not sure why.

My early days on Medium

There was a time when this community was all about positive content. Back then, I wrote death metal reviews and arranged interviews with black metal stars.

Initially, I brought my hobbies to Medium, and it took me a while to figure out that the platform wanted me to write about my professional expertise as a writer, teacher, life coach, and digital nomad rather than about my passion for music, heavy metal, and the occasional album review or horror story.

That probably explains why in 2019, I was only making a few cents while the top self-improvement writers were making five figures.

Then the pandemic broke out, and I had my first Medium epiphany. It was time to step away from doom metal, join the positivity-fuelled advice guild, and pull out my coaching merits to get more visibility on the platform.

Well, the strangest thing happened.

When I had slowed down on writing about doom and gloom music genres, the Medium gods suddenly seemed to cast an evil eye on their self-improvement zealots.

A new fellowship was rising to the eerie sound of the seven trumpets.

The same gods who once favored more positivity-driven pieces were now flocking to stories about the Fourth Turning and the last ride of the Four Knights of the Apocalypse.

Doom and gloom is the new black on Medium?

Medium is an extraordinary place. It’s where I revamped my writing after a period of writer’s block.

But lately, things haven’t been feeling the same, as if a hidden agenda was pulling the strings.

Well, it’s not just me — I’ve talked to several other writers who have also felt that Medium was becoming more about the dark side of the Force and the Jedi’s guild was fading to oblivion.

We’re all worried that its ambition threatens this platform we love. Icarus brought forward its demise by flying too close to the sun.

So rather than complain or bury my head in the sand, I’ve decided to speak up about what’s wrong with Medium and how we can fix it together before it’s too late!

The platform is full of negativity these days. It’s coming from all sides: the readers, writers, publications, the algorithm, and the community’s top authors themselves (mainly from the latter, actually).

Despite the top doomers’ complaints about a sudden drop in views (and coin), it seems the algorithm tends to favor negative posts (especially meta-stories) over positive ones.

You can quickly figure this out yourself if you start paying attention to the AI-recommended content in terms of popularity or engagement level and what stories are showing up on our feeds and their hierarchy in the topic pages.

I’ve read several studies on the subject of negative AI polarization.

Today, readers are more likely than ever to encounter negative content online.

Let’s have a look.

The echo chamber effect on Medium

Medium’s negatively charged echo chamber has drained me, and my writing is starting to feel under the weather.

Nowadays, algorithms can limit exposure to diverse perspectives and favor forming groups of like-minded users framing and reinforcing a shared narrative, which some authors refer to as an echo chamber.

“Indeed, feed algorithms mediate and influence the content promotion accounting for users’ preferences and attitudes. Such a paradigm shift affected the construction of social perceptions and the framing of narratives (…) especially on polarizing topics. (…) Furthermore, when polarization is high, misinformation quickly proliferates.”

Hence, the Medium algorithm now seems to favor negative stories over positive ones, which are less likely to gain traction.

I’ve seen this trend countless times on my feed. Stories that instigate a strong, negatively charged emotional response usually get much more traction than those that are more balanced and provide a helpful or positive takeaway.

That explains why you will find downbeat meta-stories on Medium that will get +200 responses and thousands of claps, while upbeat posts will get only a few or none, even if they tackle the same topic.

The former group will get more traction than the latter because the algorithm seems to be polarizing these negatively charged stories, promoting and pushing them toward the top of your feed, or you end up receiving them in your email.

The algorithm works against us, or are we working against ourselves

When we write on Medium, it’s a bit like being on a treadmill: you can’t stop or pause unless you want to lose your audience and the attention of the platform’s AI.

So what happens when we’re working against this algorithm?

It gets hard to stop writing; it becomes difficult to keep up with the pace set by others in our field; we may even feel like nothing we produce is good enough because someone else has already published something similar (or at least part of it).

Additionally, because our work is visible through searches and social media shares, there’s pressure from both inside and outside sources for us not just to publish but also to publish frequently — even if what we’ve produced isn’t ready for public consumption yet.

The algorithm is not working against us.

We are working against ourselves. We need to work on our mindset and how we approach Medium.

Humans train the algorithm and not the other way around.

Thus, if we are exposed to all this negativity in our Medium feeds, that can be explained by our innate tendency for a strange attraction toward everything wrong with the world around us and within ourselves.

We need to try to counter this behavior actively.

How to deal with the negative ‘echo chamber’ effect on Medium

The devil is in the details; I’ve noticed that in just a few months, from almost thirty top writer badges, I’m now down to a handful.

That felt strange, like a bad omen.

I hope it happens because the AI is trying to introduce new writers to the spotlight.

If that’s the case, it’s okay.

I’ve stopped caring about collecting those badges. I am not niching down, but I’m bringing my expertise to more specific topics to write more reader-centric stories and provide actionable advice.

So why am I calling in sick on Medium for the day?

I’m not leaving, dear Medium, if you’re wondering. I’m trying to find other places to write, but truth be told, I’ve been doing that from the start.

I believe Medium is still a space where the best audience can read (and hear) my words.

I’m just taking a break and staying in bed until the storm passes. Beatrice has left me all doom and gloom, and I am not okay with that.

I admit that sometimes this darkness engulfs me to a point where my writing starts to pay the ultimate price.

In the past, every time this happened, I would fight it and push myself to write whatever positive story I could pull off.

Those days are over; I’m no longer pushing myself to write insightful pieces filled with positive takeaways around the clock, only to see them flop under the weight of the more appealing doom-and-gloom stories making their way to the spotlight.

I’m taking my time; I will sow only the best seeds and wait for the laws of karma to reshuffle the playing field.

I’m sure that many other writers feel this way too. After all, the platform has become too noisy as of late; and there’s a new algorithm in town that seems to favor the gloomy take on itself over anything else.

What are the chances of this story catching the AI’s attention?

Parting thoughts

I wrote this story because I believe we don’t have to settle for this. I want to think Medium is still a “living network of curious minds,” a “trusted and vibrant ecosystem,” and not a pit of doom and dread where writers cast their sorrowful deluges.

But if we want to change, we must ask ourselves tough questions.

1. What will it take for us to feel like valued members of this community?
2. Are you still excited about this platform?
3. Has the noise become too much?
4. How can it be improved?

Sahil Patel has shared a story where he asks another crucial question: “Is it worth writing on Medium?”

Like Sahil, I will never regret my decision to write on Medium, even if I know that here, like on any other platform. I’m not writing on my terms, and I’m okay with that.

I feel empowered by my understanding of the karmic laws. Hence there’s a time to sow and a time to reap, and patience is the virtue of the wise.

I’m feeling under the weather today, but with each new dawn comes a horizon of endless possibilities. Maybe tomorrow, it will be my turn to be blessed by the gods.

I hope that Medium’s leadership sees this not as a call for change but as an invitation to listen. I’ll be watching with great interest to see what happens next. Are you?

A new dawn is coming as I write these final words. Beatrice allowed me to get a better night’s sleep and every cloud in the sky as a silver lining. Hence in the spirit of reciprocity, I leave you with Dr. Preeti Singh’s inspiring words in this story about her writing journey on Medium: “Make life special and enjoy the rainbows in your life 🌈”

Related stories

Connie Song nails it in short form:

I’ve taken a lengthier approach here:

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References:

• Gainsbury, S. M., Browne, M., & Rockloff, M.: Identifying risky Internet use: Associating negative online experience with specific online behaviors. New Media & Society, 21(6), 1232–1252. (2019).
• Massimo Stella et al.: Bots increase exposure to negative and inflammatory content in online social systems, Edited by Jon Kleinberg, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, (2018).
• Matteo Cinelli, Gianmarco De Francisci Morales: The echo chamber effect on social media, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway (2020).
• Niccolo Pescetelli, et al.: Indirect Causal Influence of a Single Bot on Opinion Dynamics Through a Simple Recommendation Algorithm, Complex Networks & Their Applications X, (28–41), (2022).