To the Very Fine Person Who Highlights Almost Every Line in My Pieces

Summary

The author addresses a reader who excessively highlights their articles, explaining why this behavior is counterproductive and discouraging it.

Abstract

The article "To the Very Fine Person Who Highlights Almost Every Line in My Pieces" is a direct appeal to an individual who has a habit of highlighting a significant portion of the author's work on Medium. The author expresses concern over this practice, noting that it detracts from the readability of the piece and renders the act of highlighting meaningless when almost everything is emphasized. The writer points out that excessive highlighting can be distracting, making the unhighlighted text stand out more, which may inadvertently shift the reader's focus away from the intended message. The author emphasizes that while praise is appreciated, the act of highlighting should be used judiciously to truly show appreciation for the writing. The writer suggests alternative ways of showing genuine praise, such as giving claps, buying a coffee for the writer, or subscribing for future notifications. The article concludes with a plea to use the highlight feature more selectively, quoting a line from the movie "Planes, Trains & Automobiles" to emphasize the importance of discretion in expression.

Opinions

The author believes that highlighting every line diminishes the impact of the highlighting tool and the overall reading experience.
Excessive highlighting is seen as a distraction that can mislead other readers as to what is truly important or interesting in the text.
The writer feels that the current level of highlighting is not a form of genuine praise but rather a compulsive behavior that needs to be controlled.
There is a suggestion that the writer feels undervalued or misunderstood by the reader's actions, as the effort put into writing is not being respected.
The author implies that the reader may not be aware of the negative consequences of their highlighting habit and encourages them to be more selective.
The article conveys a sense of frustration and humor, using a movie reference to underscore the main point about the need for discrimination in what one chooses to highlight.

I WROTE THIS PIECE A YEAR AGO AND YOU CONTINUE TO MUTILATE OTHER WRITERS’ WORK TO THE POINT THAT iT iS DIFFICULT TO READ, EVEN UNREADABLE. YOU ARE NOT BEING FAIR TO ALL WHO WRITE ON MEDIUM!

Photo by Frans Van Heerden on Pexels

Dear Compulsive Highlighter:

Genuine praise from you and other readers is desirable and very welcome indeed. Snarky comments come with the territory, along with being ignored or garnering very few reads, followers, and/or claps, and making little or no money.

But highlighting is in a class unto itself. Sui generis, as we say in the law.

Below are the problems you create for writers by highlighting every line (or almost every line) in a Medium piece, in case you are not aware. Because I assume your intentions are good or that compulsive highlighting is a reflex you have trouble controlling.

If everything in the piece is important enough to highlight, then nothing is.

A lot of highlighting is distracting. It makes the piece look cluttered. It makes it harder for others to read, which I hope is not your goal.

The reader will be drawn to the (few) sentences that are NOT highlighted since these will stand out as different from the rest and thus, more interesting or important. They are so rare the reader will fixate on them, and not on the point(s) the writer has struggled to make. The reader will puzzle over why only these few lines were NOT worthy of highlighting — again, distracting from the point of the piece.

The writer does not feel flattered to have almost every line highlighted. Writers crave attention and praise, like anyone else, but are generally paranoid and suspicious, and “writely” so, if you’ll pardon the pun. It takes guts to lay it all on the line for others to read and mock or ( maybe) enjoy. But please, go easy on the highlighting. Medium does not pay a bonus for the number of highlights bestowed upon a piece. (I have highlighted—well, bolded—this sentence so you don’t need to.)

If you think genuine praise is in order, great. The writer has achieved his or her goal! Give the piece a hundred claps, maybe a thousand; go ahead and highlight a line or two, buy the writer a coffee or sign up for notifications when the writer publishes anything else.

I will sum up using the words of Neal Page, as brilliantly portrayed by Steve Martin in one of my favorite films, Planes, Trains & Automobiles: “You know, everything is not an anecdote. You have to discriminate. You choose things that are funny or mildly amusing or interesting.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planes,_Trains_and_Automobiles

Please do not highlight anything in this piece. If you think I might be talking to you, you are correct. If I have hurt your feelings, I apologize since that was not my intent. Thank you for reading anything I write, but next time you reach for that highlight key, imagine that your fingers will get chopped off in a meat grinder if you persist.

Curmudgeonly Yours,

Grumpy Writer & Highlighting Denier

To the Very Fine Person Who Highlights Almost Every Line in My Pieces

You know who you are. I’m not going to ‘out’ you but you NEED to cut it out!

I WROTE THIS PIECE A YEAR AGO AND YOU CONTINUE TO MUTILATE OTHER WRITERS’ WORK TO THE POINT THAT iT iS DIFFICULT TO READ, EVEN UNREADABLE. YOU ARE NOT BEING FAIR TO ALL WHO WRITE ON MEDIUM!