What’s so great about Medium?

Let’s make the world a better place.

A nightly report written in the airport of Oslo, instead of trying to sleep on a chair, waiting through the night for the flight to take us on Sunday morning far south towards the sun of Tenerife

Medium is a channel. A communication channel.

Some call it a wall. Internet’s first open payment wall.

Medium allows us to do what we love doing. Read, write, and maybe also earn money on the writing!

If — and that’s a big IF — if we are seen.

If many readers find our stories, read and clap.

Then we may make some money, many of us. Or some of us.

But we have to be seen first.

That’s one side of what Medium is for us — as writers.

Medium is a challenge. Medium is a huge writing contest. Everybody’s fight against everybody — i. e. an unknown number of very competent fellow writers.

And Medium is a wonderful opportunity to write and watch in real time how the writer’s final product will look when published.

Publishing has never been easier.

But Medium is more. Medium is also a treasure Chest.

For us readers, we who are curious and eager to read and to know what’s going on — Medium is a genuine treasure Chest.

I enjoy it when I sit with my computer and discover stories. I see headings that make me curious, names of writers— I always find something well worth using my time on.

I read about many topics that I otherwise never would have read about.

I learn from Medium, every day.

I become sad. Sometimes a little irritated. Or surprised.

I read. I smile, I think of myself, my life. I wonder.

I wonder how things can be like they are.

I wonder if it is really that bad, the world today.

Sometimes I find a poem. Or a short story. Or a chat, a causerie.

I love to write poems. And I enjoy reading poems, small texts that say something that touches me. Something that makes me think.

Being on Medium, finding exciting new stories every day is great. It enriches my existence.

I feel privileged, not at least because I now, in the actual period of my life, have the time and possibility to do this:

I can search for new stories, I can read and reflect around what I am reading.

I can give my claps and I can comment, or write my own stories and publish them on Medium. Because reading and writing has finally become my most important work activity now.

Medium lets me come close to people.

Sometimes I wonder who they are, these people. These writers on Medium — are they a bit like me? It looks like they prefer to express themselves by writing — not by speaking.

Or are they — on the contrary — also fond of talking, discussing, perhaps making speeches, or talking, telling stories in videos?

Probably they are all kinds of people, but most of them are — I think — a special kind of people.

Those who write on Medium are people who have knowledge and wisdom, and who wish to share what they find. Many of them also express, sometimes explicitely — that they wish to contribute to make the world a better place.

The people I get to know a little on Medium are open-minded, they talk to me because they love to do so.

They write to share information, insights, ideas. And yes, they also write to be liked, of course.

I believe I have today discovered far from all of Medium’s good sides.

Medium is in a way a social channel, but it is far more than merely a communication channel and a social channel.

Medium allows people to express themselves in a favorable environment for this kind of communication. On Medium we can say what we want to say, and be sure that we will be judged and maybe also appreciated for the quality of what we deliver. But it is not as simple as that.

Medium is also a site overcrowded with brilliant stories and brilliant signatures.

For a newcomer it is very challenging to make her or his way into the limelight. A new writer on Medium needs helpers, many people who applaud her or him.

So what is the Medium content?

Here’s a little collection of Medium stories that I have read and clapped for. The way the headings are formulated is of course not random. On the contrary the headings are the way they are because they are intended to awaken the reader’s curiosity and make her or him want to read.

The headings in this random list should say something about what is going on on the site:

• How Societies Collapse
• How Democracy (Really) Dies
• How American Thought Became Nihilism
• Yes, You Should Delete Facebook
• How to Write Compelling Articles That Get Read and Shared
• Why Didn’t Americans Take Fascism Seriously Until it Was Too Late?
• If You Do These 7 Things, You’ll Be Able To Achieve Any Goal You Set
• The Reason You’re Not Successful Is Because You Don’t Want To Admit This 1 Thing
• Your Job Is To Win Big During The First 90 Minutes Of Your Day
• Why You Should Fall In Love With The Deadbeat Haters
• How To Write From The Heart: You’ve Got The Words To Change A Nation.
• 6 Ways To Think Like A Winner And Intensify Your Life
• I’m a “highly functional” Autistic. It takes a lot of work.
• i don’t mind if you forget me

It is quite clear that the list is not exhaustive. I have no idea about how many texts have been published on Medium so far, but I guess it must be tens of thousands, perhaps much more — Medium knows!

But the list tells a few things about the content on Medium:

The reader can read about important and fundamental questions concerning the world community.

The reader can read about writing good texts on Medium, or getting good advice on personal development.

Or the reader can read about what it is like to be a human being. What it is like being a woman, being a man, being an autistic, for example.

The last text on the list is a poem, which allows me to mention that there is a variety of genres represented in the mass of stories. But first and last and almost all the time the stories are articles that tell a story about how the writer sees it.

I have created my own private system for keeping the record of the stories I read and make sure I can find them again: I copy the link, and behind each story I write a character. I give grades from 1 to 6:

• 1 is bad. I usually never continue reading stories that give me the 1 or 2 feeling.
• Usually, I read what seems to become a grade 3 story until the end.
• 4 is good,
• 5 is very good
• 6 is brilliant!

Thank you for reading!

Feel free to share.

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