Does Checking Your Medium Stats Ever Make You Feel A Little Nuts?
Views, reads, fans, up, down, sideways and backwards
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I try not to obsess about the Medium stats. I make an effort to not turn on my laptop pre-morning coffee. Or, power it up at 2:00 a.m. I really do!
But this stat thing is beginning to make me feel a little nuts.
I write what I consider to be a killer article and nothing. Intermittent fasting for example is so simple and healthy, and with a little discipline so easy. Eat dinner and then don’t eat until breakfast. The health benefits are enormous. I have been intermittent fasting for three weeks, have shed three pounds, and feel good. Who wouldn’t want to read this, right?
Or my equally noteworthy post on the benefits of drinking more water. From better teeth to lower blood pressure.
To muddy the water, an article I wrote on a whim about the connection between banana bread and frozen shoulder was very popular. Who would have guessed.
After much thought, I have deduced the following:
- Medium readers are very intelligent and already know this stuff.
- Medium readers don’t care for this type of information.
- Headlines are duds.
- Sub-titles lacks lustre.
- SEO is bad.
- Images suck.
- Posts get lost among all the other great writers.
- Don’t write enough.
- Write too much.
- Don’t read enough.
- Read too much.
- Publish, edit, publish.
- Tags are crummy.
- Temperamental algorithm
- Expect too much.
- Don’t stand out.
- Unrealistic.
- Fear of success syndrome. Unconsciously suppress true talent (lol)
- Medium is undermining me. (ha ha)
- Boring material.
- Posts are too long.
- Posts are too short.
- Writing doesn’t provide value.
- Suck as a writer.
- Mediocre at best.
- Think way too much.
- The scariest of them all. There are no answers.
This stats thing will continue to bother me. It will continue to drive me nuts. I will feel down when my stats are lower and elated when my stats are higher. I guess this is the human experience.
When you think about it though, we get so much more from writing then sheer numbers. Writing allows us to do what we love. We can be creative. We can enjoy the beauty of self-expression. Writing connects us with other writer’s, the world, and most importantly with ourselves.
Happy writing.
