Appealing to mediocre people
Yesterday I decided to start thinking about some ideas that I could approach in my articles, so I could spend most of my Monday writing instead of thinking about what topics I could write about.
To do that, I though that visiting Medium and reading the titles of some articles written by other people could help me come up with something myself.
I was right, and wrong at the same time.
Within 2 minutes I lost almost all my motivation to write, and I just wanted to stop and do something else.
The reason that happened was because the first 2-3 articles I saw on Medium were approaching mediocre subjects like "Technology is bad" or "Our children stop being social" or "The effects our phones have on our kids" and I just got tired of seeing so many dumb people talk about something they may not completely understand.
However, I decided to get over it, and not give a crap.
Thing is, there are a lot of articles on Medium approaching subjects like ancient philosophy, quantum mechanics, theories about life and our "purpose" here, how to evolve, what the future may look like for us and how great it could be, and so on, yet people still look at those mediocre articles made by people who act like they know what they're talking about.
The main reason for that is, I think, because people love drama. People love to see something "bad" happen. People love to see how something's wrong and how their ideas are being verified not by a specialist, but by someone who just writes articles on the Internet.
And those authors know that, and they're probably writing mediocre articles on purpose in order to appeal to those mediocre people who just want to see their ideas being approved by some random dude on the Internet.
It's kinda sad, and it makes me lose my motivation sometimes, especially when I realize that I could literally spend weeks learning about Greek philosophy for example in order to write about that topic, and people would simply ignore my articles and instead focus on things like "Why technology is bad!" or "Why women are better than men" or "Here's an example of what white supremacy looks like" and so on.
It's sad, stupid and, in my opinion, even disgusting.
Don't do that.
Have a little bit of respect for yourself and for the people who may want to read about your opinions on some subjects you're sincerely interested in, and don't write random things just to appeal to the masses. It's not worth it in the long run, especially if you decide, at some point in the future, that you want to share your honest opinions and not what people want to hear.
If you're genuinely interested in those topics, then sure, go ahead, write about them, don't let me or anyone stop you. But don't force yourself to write about something you don't care about just to get some views. You may get what you want for now, but that can simply change in the future and, who knows, the people who's attention you wanted to get may be the ones ruining you.
Just approach the topics you want to discuss and try to form a community made out of people who care about what you do, who have more or less similar opinions and who will support you even when they don't agree with you.
Absolutely right on this one. Unfortunately there is a market for mediocre that's why there are writers that cater to this market. Though I could see some occasional blogs writing about a dull topic yet coming out with well researched facts.
Sometimes it's not really about finding novelty but verifying what we already know about the topics. I read science and medical journals about vitamin C being good for your health. Doesn't spell out interesting and it's duh everyone knows about that? But I read it doesn't change the course of sepsis. That's new but not specifically stated on the title as click bait.
The thing about exploring mediocre topics is that not all authors recycle content. Some actually make effort verifying known facts and present new researches that contradict what has been established.
You make a good point. I as well read a bunch of articles approaching mediocre topics from time to time, just to see if someone came up with a new idea that may interest me.
My problem is with those who intentionally approach mediocre topics out of a desire to try to convince people that the way they see things is the right way and everyone else is wrong, or those who just seek views, so they approach mediocre topics full of drama because that's what will help them achieve their goal.
I especially see that on Medium, where people seem to love to write articles about why humanity is great and technology is horrible, about why fat is better than skinny, why women are great and men are the worst, or the opposite, why women are awful and men are incredible.
I find it annoying that those are almost the only types of articles you can find on the front page, and you have to dig a lot in order to find someone that discusses something else, something interesting, in an article where they try to share their opinion, not explain to others why they're right.
It's not even that those people don't exist, they are there, trying, but, as usual, drama and topics full of hate or contradiction always get all the attention when other people may deserve it.
As an example, a men hating article made by a woman who believes that 100% of unwanted pregnancies are cause by men, because women, in her opinion, aren't to blame for irresponsible behavior, has around 24.000 claps/likes on Medium.
Here's the article: https://medium.com/s/can-we-talk/men-cause-100-of-unwanted-pregnancies-eb0e8288a7e5
It was also shared on Twitter and promoted by their Medium profile.
However, another article made by a guy named Jeremie Harris who talks about quantum mechanics and why we may live in a parallel universe, only has around 6300 claps/likes, despite the article being interesting, really easy to read and it offers a really simple introduction to what quantum mechanics are.
Here's the article: https://medium.com/s/can-we-talk/men-cause-100-of-unwanted-pregnancies-eb0e8288a7e5
It kinda pisses me off that Medium would promote the first article that received a lot of bad criticism from a bunch of people who weren't direct supporters of that author or the men hating feminism movement, yet they ignore the article of a guy who can make someone with no prior knowledge about quantum mechanics understand the basic way of thinking in that field.
Maybe that's just me, but I wish I would find more articles like that on the front page of Medium, instead of useless drama that leads to nothing.
Medium does it because it's the type of content that get them traffic. I would liken it to Wattpad where there are more story genres worth exploring and promoting than romance but romance is what sells. They go where the money is. It's a bit low for writers to do this but it's what keeps food on the table. I don't like it but I understand it.
People weren't built for rational thinking most of the time. That's how extreme the gap between intellectuals and the average thinkers. While I know it sounds harsh or discriminating to create this divide but it does exist. I know average thinkers would not want to be lump with the mentally deficit end of the spectrum if you know what I mean.
It's the way things are and most likely will be.
I find it sad that more and more websites/companies are doing the same thing, turning their great products into money makers, driving decent people away, and ending up with a product that only mediocre/toxic people use, who only care about drama.
It's even worse when writers who are capable of doing more than mediocre work just do what the masses ask, because that's what sells.
I don't want companies to focus only on "intellectually superior" people, and to ignore masses, but it would be nice to also promote content creators that do something different, than to ignore them and just focus on what brings money.
Balance should be a thing. Sadly, it doesn't seem to exist for them.
As you, I don't like it, and while I understand it, it still pisses me off.
Good job...
Thanks :)