May 14, 2015
A tribute to Medium –and why we should stand up for our idols again!
This is my very first post on Medium and my first blog post since long time. I am quite active on various social channels sharing the latest trends and news, a lot of pictures via Instagram and so on — BUT writing a post that matters to myself is a total different story. This alone leads me to a huge respect for all authors who are already taking their time and guts to publish their own thoughts on the web and especially here on Medium.
Which leads me back to my headline. For quite some time I have the impression that our society isn’t talking so much about their idols anymore — it seems to be much more in vogue to shout out what a great person I am and how clever I am and how influential. Partly this is fuelled by the industry I am working in — who helped professionalize those influencers as a commercial business. But obviously also megatrends like #SelfCentral play a huge role in the loss of giving credits to those people and mediums who inspire, mentor and help us grow as a person.
From my point of view that’s a real shame — as I believe that the return to the importance of the community is vital to heal this world and make it a better place. We do share obviously a lot of content — but most of us keep their sources of inspiration and enlightenment sacred. In the occasions were it’s not feasible, they wouldn’t out themselves as a “fan” or pay any special credits — highlighting how important this source is to their self-development. And honestly I was acting this way also quiet some time, until realizing that this holds us back — a lot!
So my point is, that we should embrace our role-models and start to talk about our mentors and idols again. Call it a “coming-out” as “fan” or “addict” of a certain source which fosters our minds on a regular basis. So before contributing to Medium — it was important to myself to out me first as a #FANBOY of it and all the authors who publish here. Medium has become a daily read for myself — sometimes the amount of great and valuable content is overwhelming to myself — it’s partly so addictive, that I stop whatever I am doing, and take the precious 5 to 30 Minutes to read the whole story till the end. So now I am “paying back” by starting to publish my thoughts as well via Medium — let’s see if others find this valuable or not.
Obviously there are other great sources for content online — the once I read every week or even daily are (in alphabetical order): 99U, Bored Panda, Kickstarter, MOZ, Sidebar, Trendland, Motherboard, Wikipedia and last but not least Wired. Still there are plenty more, especially in print — but I guess this will be another post in the future which shall include how I will start to contribute to these as well.
For now I would be grateful if you mention your Top 3 daily sources, which help you grow. Not to mention that I am happy about any other comment as well ☺
