Using Medium
A subtle hint that the internet is still hard to use
Something like five years ago, I decided to start my own blog. Keep in mind, as a young, experience-less teenager, my writing wasn’t anything to cite or reason with. It was writing, though, and writing is always important (and cumulative). The effort that I went through to organize and publicize my work, however, is an effort that sticks with me to this day. Being a first-year at a medium-size university, I’m granted with the beautiful freedom of adulthood, and even with all-the-more constrained freetime, I make note to write almost every day. So, how do I exert that same effort to publicize in a new age? Do I stick to that blog model I relied on at thirteen, or is that far obseleted by now, and a clock-chime of internet evolution tangible?
Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ve progressed nearly enough in an online-decade to look back and scoff at our silly histories of by-hand journals and Blogger domains. Unless you’re uncannily tech-savvy, getting your work permalinked is harder than you’d think, or like. When I rebooted my website a few years ago, it was only natural to implement the aforementioned blog section. Instead of utilizing a service like Wordpress, one which would require custom assets and site-wide configuration, I opted for a simpler solution— use a more modern equivalent of the old .blogspot— Tumblr. My problem, here, however, is that Tumblr is not inherently meant for writing. It’s meant for expressing your teenage individuality. It’s a social network, not a venue to stamp on your resumé when you apply to work at the New York Times. As my writing persona and topics changed and grew, I threw more money at my “tumblog,” hopelessly intending to make it more appealing and simplistic— easy to read and to write. Nevertheless, I was plagued with poorly-formatted themes, cantankerous HTML editors, and nonsense forced-features. Not only had my wish to write for an online medium been unfulfilled properly, it seemed as if it had been even less satisfied than it was back in ‘08.
Medium is where it all condenses, however. Even though I’m helpless to archive and host my old articles elsewhere, I’ll never have to resort to an imperfect solution again. As Tumblr was a network for personality and relationships, Medium is a network for writing and ideas. A legendary editor, clean design, and open access are what the internet had been begging for. And it’s here, and it’s been waiting. My efforts to centralize and purpose my writing doesn’t have to been centered around a framework of apps and advertising— it can be precisely what it wants to be. Writing.
I’m glad to join. And you’d be hard-pressed to convince me to go anywhere else. Oh, and if you want to know more about me, that old Tumblr’s still not going anywhere. Cheers.
