Newsletter Issue 1
What are we reading when we’re on Medium?
When I joined medium a little more than two weeks ago, I wanted to create a blog to experiment with writing. I had no idea about Medium.com as a platform. I had only read a couple of academic theory explainers, and that was my extent of knowledge about the platform.
I simply wanted to write down my ideas, create short articles on ideas that can be expanded upon later, feel motivated to research but not overwhelmed, follow other writers who share my interests- and I am doing most of these things.
However, I started doing something else as well.
[This promo just seems very fitting here]
This is the Issue 1 of the Player Zero Newsletter. To Subscribe, scroll till the end of article, or simply go to my Medium Blog! Know more about the Newsletter here.As I joined Medium.com, I was greeted with a feed which had article after article on getting more traction. These came in all shapes and sizes: comparisons of platforms, how to get more people to read your blog, why I should be blogging/starting a newsletter in 2022, how to pump out more articles, and on and on and on.
Some of them did help me a great deal. I had no idea about the tricks; I did not even have an idea about why these tricks are needed in the first place. I quickly learned that these kind of help articles about online writing/content creation also gain the most traction. And now, on my Blog Map, I have a special section for articles that I wrote after being seduced by Medium’s algorithm.
Not only did I read on Medium.com, I read Medium.com. Before I concentrated on Medium.com as a platform, I only chose from the Google search results which theory explainer I wanted from the platform. But after joining Medium.com as a writer, I not only read the articles, but I read the message that the platform was communicating.
Now, this is not to say that Medium.com’s creators or its writers were consciously working at this message being sent across. They were and are not. It happened in various ways/steps:
- Medium.com welcoming me with their 101 toolkit for new writers (which is super useful)
- Being recommended more and more such articles
- Medium.com’s algorithm rewarding me (and others) when I, too, write articles on content creation
- The Medium Partner Program’s qualifications: 100 Followers
- Medium.com community’s cult-like knowledge on what works, does not work, alternative platforms and ways to create a following (like a newsletter, one I am starting right now!)
- All community members being encouraged for similar behavior
Eventually, the message that comes across being a part of Medium.com is more binding than the message of one particular article that I read on Medium.
Marshall McLuhan’s ‘The Medium is the Message’ is a text ahead of its time. I wanted to extend this theory not just to a medium (the means), but rather to a platform. And its themes seemed fitting for my first ever newsletter.
I will use the words Medium (the platform) and medium (the means) quite a bit here, but I want it to play a trick on your mind. Try seeing what happens when you use them interchangeably.
To put it (criminally) simply, McLuhan says that apart from the message you’re reading/viewing on the medium, you’re also reading the medium: the medium is a message in itself. It crafts the people who use it: the ways of engagement and incentive (for example, emotional and economic) form its audience and users. By using the medium, you can understand its users.
This is not to say that you simply look through the content (say, an article on Medium.com) you have visited the platform for. But unless you are looking for one very specific thing, like before joining Medium.com I was looking for an explainer of a theory, chances are that all medium content you do read (as a regular user of the platform) are incidental.
You gain knowledge about (the) medium way more than you gain knowledge about other specific things. Because as a whole what appears in front of you is medium: the medium that is created by its users, crafted already by how the medium works with incentives and engagement.
So, let me ask you: For you, what does it mean to read/write on Medium.com? Or any other platform you use the most? Has the platform reshaped your motivations and strategies?
It is extremely important to study the medium you’re using. Study it to become conscious of it and the unique realm it has created; that is, to not simply be conscious of its message but also why it is that specific message that is coming across.
In McLuhan’s words, “All media has an irresistible force when invisible.” And that “subliminal and docile acceptance of media impact has made them [the media] prisons without walls for their human users.”
As the newsletter has more issues, I will create sections that will be featured in each issue. But as of right now, I want to experiment and see what feels right!
