You Shouldn’t Highlight Articles If..
Beware of the Consequences
Medium readers don’t just read anymore. They engage in all different ways possible.
They’re not your random readers. They are attention-seeking creatures who have come to capture parts of your writing with their highlights just because they want their names on it.
Not everyone, but most of them.
Yes! Medium readers don’t just read to enjoy. They read to be known.
They want you to know they read your article.
If they’re lazy, they’ll just mark a particular phrase, sentence or paragraph by simply highlighting it.
Otherwise, they’ll use the other options they have:
- Responding to the highlight
- Tweeting the highlight
- Writing a private note
Let me be honest with you.
No one is going to tweet the highlights or write a private note. With the exception of a few real readers, the rest of the lot will just respond to the highlight.
Why?
Because their objective is simple- they want to be known.
They want to be known on Medium so that other writers will read their articles.
These readers have a real big FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). They don’t want to miss the chance of planting flags with their names on your articles without spending more than a minute reading it.
It’s like a video game with four levels:
- Basic Level: Unknown reader: just reads
- Normal Level: Normal reader: reads and claps
- Advanced Level:Special reader: reads, claps and comments
- God Level: Super special reader: reads, claps, comments and highlights
Who wants to be an unknown reader when you have all the chances in the world of becoming a super special reader, and immortalising yourself not just in the minds of the writer, but also in the writings of their articles? (Yes! The ones you highlighted!)
Not everyone is like that though.
There are some readers who genuinely read your articles, clap, comment and highlight meaningfully.
One such reader is Timothy J. Sabo. He is a prolific writer and a good Medium friend of mine. He savours every single word of the article, and then highlights the part he particularly likes. Whenever he highlights something, I know he read it before he did it.
And I do the same on his articles.
The same goes with Judy Derby. When she reads something, she reads it, and when she highlights it, she means it.
Judy recently wrote a wonderful piece about highlighting.
This is what she wrote
Personally, I feel everyone should be “perlmuttered” at least once in their writing career, and I don’t mind reading articles that have been highlighted to death.
I don’t mind either.
I’ve become habitual to reading over-highlighted articles at a time when skinny teens are wiggling their buttocks on Tik Tok just for a few thousand more views.
Everyone wants to be known.
As long as the content is good, I don’t mind. But it’s not just about the content, it’s also about the intent of the reader.
If you, the reader, are reading an article just for the sake of getting your name on my notification, then please don’t do that. Just.. don’t do that.
I’m sorry to say it so bluntly, but I- don’t- like-it.
Not only me, but thousands of other writers like me don’t like it either.
If you’re not reading my story, but just highlighting it, I ain’t earning a single dime.
You’re like one of those customers occupying space in front of the counter while I’m trying to sell my stuff to a real customer with cash in her hand.
You’re not buying anything, but still want to get the recognition of a ‘customer.’
Mind me. I have eyes everywhere.
Do you know I take screenshots of my Medium stats so that I know if someone read my article or not?
I know some readers who frequently highlight my articles, but don’t read them. Do you think I’m blind?
I see you, but you can’t see me.
Please don’t use such cheap tactics.
I’m saying it not because I am angry at you but because you’ve ruined your own image in front of me now.
The moment I see your name, I check my stats and sigh deeply. Just as I had expected.
Writers will know. Sooner or later, they will find out.
Then they will treat you the same way I do. They will just ignore you and stop reading your stories. Sometimes they may tell a fellow writer about you.
You know how quickly gossip spreads don’t you?
So, be sincere. Read the article properly. Show some love and drop a meaningful comment if you can. If you don’t have time to read, it’s fine. But don’t pretend that you read it when you actually didn’t.
I don’t want to see you on my notification, if you didn’t do anything meaningful for me.
I know I spent my time reading your articles. Is this the way you treat me? With some cheap highlights?
Now that you know who you are, my advice is loud and clear.
You shouldn’t highlight articles if you are not reading them.
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