avatarNour Boustani

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A Reflection on Passion vs Profit in the World of Online Writing and Reading

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Medium pays you to write? Medium pays you to read? Does Medium pay you for engagement? Leaving comments? And they tell you the opposite? Do you game the system, and the system games you? Welcome to the World of Medium, where readers are writers and writers are readers.

You want to get paid for every single word you write on Medium, but Medium is a business; it has given you a platform so that you can read, learn, write, and earn and, in some cases, also provide you with some silly content by some modern buffs here… Ssssshhhh… don’t tell them I said that I know you all read that sexy stuff every now and then. Those people earn money, and rarely do they earn comments, but hey, they still earn. Right?

Medium is a social media platform for entertainment. You can switch from one article to another, from boring, dull to sexy stuff, just scroll, but hey, you are gonna pay some dollars for entertainment. As a human and someone who has got some brains and creativity, too, you start to write random ramblings. Fair enough! You are paying, and as you are smart, you also write to earn some cash, thinking, if they can write, why can’t I? Of course, you are brilliant, buddy. Write on, write on, my friend. But as you write, you start to count words…

300, 500, 700, 900, 1200, 1500, 3000, 4999 words, phew! I feel Awesommmee; I’m a great writer. I’m a content machine; I can churn out many articles daily, make plenty of money, write a hundred books, and whatnot. After writing, I will visit other people’s articles like a crazy genius and make 100s of comments until Medium punishes me with a temporary ban. I still won’t stop and leave notes and claps on others' articles, letting them know I read their work, and now it is their turn to jump on my work and read like crazy, no matter what I write. I will write 1000s of words so they stay on my page for a long time and read, highlight, and clap, and yeah, respond too. See Medium, you game me, and I will game you. I will dominate the world of online writing; ahu, ahu!

Hey, hey, What are you doing? Are you counting words as you write? Are you jumping all over Medium to post comments? Seriously? Come here, who taught you that? Tell me their name, and I will light their butt on fire. Oops! What did you say? Medium? Why? How? When?

If you also heard that the more you write, the better writer you become, the more you read, the more you earn, take that idea, dump it in the toilet, and flush twice. Writing longer or more content, reading and posting more, doesn’t automatically make you a better earner on Medium; it only makes your fingers thinner and more exhausted.

The problem I see on Medium these days is that capitalism is the GOD here, reigning supreme with a golden crown and a sneaky grin. It’s a kingdom where the currency isn’t just your words but the clicks, the claps, the relentless hustle. It’s a contest, and oh boy, you know we all are playing it.

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You think you’re the king of the palace with your thousands of words and hundreds of articles. You’re the modern Shakespeare. No? Typing away into the wee hours of the morning, fueled by the promise of pennies for your thoughts. But you know something: Shakespeare didn’t have to worry about algorithms and engagement metrics. He was lucky in that case, don’t you think?

And then there’s the reading part. Oh, the reading! It’s like a buffet. You’re stuffing your face with every possible topic. Politics? Delicious…. Self-help? Add a spoonful of that….. A pinch of poetry…. a slice of Tech, and don’t forget to sprinkle some of those sexy stories you pretend not to like. I know you read them, too! You read, clap, highlight, and comment — it’s a merry-go-round of engagement. And now you’re feeling woozy from the ride.🥴

Image by Freepik

The kicker is that you’re not just a reader or a writer on Medium; you’re a cog in a much larger machine — a machine that feeds on your content, your time, your desperate need for validation, and a few extra bucks. The more you write, the more they earn. The more you read, the more they grow. It’s a perfect symbiosis, or so it seems.

And guess what? Now, we have two kinds of subscriptions, too, so you see where your desperate need for bucks is leading the platform. The irony? Now, you are not ready to pay extra bucks to make 4 times more. Are you tired or doubtful?

Don’t get me wrong. I know I know there’s beauty in this madness. There’s something wonderfully chaotic about a platform that turns everyone into both consumer and creator. It’s democracy in its wildest form, a digital soapbox for the masses. But let’s not kid ourselves into thinking it’s a utopia.

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Reflection time — The real questions you must ponder:

  • Are you writing because you love it or because you’re chasing the dream of becoming the next Medium tycoon?
  • Are you reading to learn, to feel, to escape, or just to rack up those engagement points and make bucks?

It’s time to take a step back, my friend. Look beyond the word counts, the claps, and the endless hustle. Remember why you started writing in the first place. Find that spark, that passion, that drove you to pour your soul onto the page. Write not for the claps but for the sheer joy of creating something that didn’t exist before you put pen to paper.

As for reading, do it for the wonder, the knowledge, the sheer pleasure of diving into another person’s world. Let’s not reduce literature to a mere transaction. Let’s not forget that there's a human being at the heart of every article, story, and poem, baring their soul and sharing their wisdom, making you laugh and cry.

So, my dear friends, go ahead and write your heart. Read like there’s no tomorrow. Engage, highlight, comment, and clap, but do this all with purpose, with passion, and with love because, at the end of the day, that’s what matters. Not the claps, not the dollars, but our human connection, the art, the creativity, the magic of our words. You and me, my friend, our connection, our human bond, that’s what matters. If you read my work and I read yours in return with lame comments, where is the fun?

Engage with all your heart and soul; that's how communities grow and become successful. You don’t need 50 people to comment on your work to earn, but you do need 10–15 loyal friends to engage with your work with all their hearts. Trust me, we will grow together like that.

So, Welcome to the world of Medium, my friend. It’s a wild ride, but what a ride it is.

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— © Nour Boustani 2023

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