I don’t really like your work. I didn’t even read it. I just scrolled and clicked the heart.
In all my avenues for sharing my passion (Instagram for poetry, Medium for life stories and other non-poetry stuff, even back in my WordPress days), I built a foundation of fake likes and I stand there.
Literally.
I don’t know where it started but that’s how I start things. Being fake. I don’t give a shit about other peoples’ work. I don’t spend even a split-second to look and judge a photo on Instagram. I just double tap. I’m a double-tapping machine.
Same goes for Medium. You think I actually read your words? I don’t. I just scroll down and click the heart. On really seldom occasions, I drop a short, generic comment like “great work!” or “Love this!”. I just want to show that my account is active so I give fake appreciation on other peoples’ work hoping others would also give a shit on mine and expecting it to be a genuine like or comment. Once people do and I have the amount of followers that make me slightly happy, that’s when I start to actually read their work.
I am an awful person. I know. Please don’t comment that I am because I already know. But feel free to so because it’s your life and I’m not the boss of the universe. You can do whatever you wish.
I sometimes consider myself an artist. Sometimes, multi-passionate. But not once have I become passionate about other’s craft. I honestly find it a waste of 2–9 minutes to read your work here on Medium. And I also find it a waste of time to think of a nice, truthful comment on someone’s poem on IG. So how am I an artist or a multi-passionate if I don’t give a shit on those things?
I have no idea.
My Instagram community is now a strong 800+ people and I can say I have at least 25 who became real online friends. The type that I chat with even outside IG. But I never realized I’m an impossibly rude human until I started to build a decent, true foundation and be part of the community here on Medium.
Through the works of some rad people like Thomas Oppong, Jon Westenberg, Darius Foroux, and the most recent is Todd Brison, I realized that I’m being an asshole.
With poetry (a.k.a. my kind of Instagram), you get wordplay and metaphors and emotion. With Medium, you get life stories, non-traditional tips (4 Ways to Make Sure You Fail as an Artist) and slap in the face reality. It’s probably how I learned to respect the work and actually show appreciation. That clicking the heart button or double tapping a photo might mean more than a mere gesture of appreciation to the artist/writer/creator, and it’s something I need to be always, always be aware of.
I still fuck up. Sometimes, I read something here and forget to click the heart. Sometimes, I click the heart only because the title sounds cool. Sometimes I just save it on Pocket or bookmark it without letting the author know s/he’s a damn rockstar for writing the piece. Sometimes I hate the Medium community for not liking my work. Same with Instagram.
Well, it’s a learning process y’all. Being true and real and authentic isn’t always inborn. But I’m in the process now. And it’s worth sharing.
