The Power of Blogging
It was on January 2nd when I published “A Teenager’s View On Social Media” and received a single view on the article. On Day Two, that number raised up to 55. By January 6th, it was at around 2,000 views. Then, on January 7th, everything changed. The count jumped from approximately 2,000 views to about 86,000 views over the course of 24 hours. Today, the article has reached over 750,000 viewers.
After the article took off, I began to go on my computer for hours checking to see what people had said about me, who shared it, who followed me, etc. It was both exhilarating and anxiety-provoking. I’ve never had to deal with so much negative criticism before, especially from people in the technology community whom I’ve admired for years. It was difficult reading through comment sections on forums and having people try to dissect what my cultural background was given my age, education, etc. It was extremely fascinating to see people discuss ‘me’ while I just idly watched on, not sure if I should or shouldn’t respond to certain comments.
On January 7th, only five days after I originally published the post, I was contacted by one of my favorite technology websites, TechCrunch. They wanted to fly me up to San Francisco and interview me for TechCrunch TV. They didn’t need me in their offices until 3pm on the day after I arrived so I spent the early part of Monday exploring different places in San Francisco. Medium was kind enough to offer me a tour of their office on Monday morning with the fantastic tour guide David Aloi. On top of this, Louis Gray, a prominent blogger and Google Analytics Advocate, was generous enough to let me have lunch at Google’s San Francisco office. Finally, I went to TechCrunch where Alexia Tsotsis and I talked about technology, the blog post, and more. She is one of the nicest and most intelligent people I’ve met in the technology field.
There was also a lot of generous support from other members of the technology community who reached out to me throughout this experience, including Steven Levy who wrote a fantastic article on Medium detailing my story. I’ve been following Steven’s blogs for a while and was humbled he took the time to write about me.
This all happened because I wrote a blog post. That’s it! I decided to take some time out of my day to put my thoughts on paper and somehow fate took over the rest. What surprised me was that my blog wasn’t necessarily novel or new, I just simply wrote down observations I had in my life. I specifically stated I did no research before I wrote the article. I thought maybe 15–20 people would look at it, not over 750,000.
The point of this post isn’t to brag but to encourage other people to write more. I’ve had a few people tweet me saying my article inspired them to start a blog or to write a response. Among everything that has happened to me in the past two weeks, that is by far the thing I am most proud of.
There is a desperate need for the teenage voice to be heard. Quite often, people my age are told we simply don’t know enough or have enough experience to contribute much to a conversation. I understand that criticism; however, it prevents others from speaking their mind and contributing their voice to the conversation.
I am just a teenager (an older one at that) and what this experience has taught me is that our input is valued and that our experiences are valued. We just have to have the courage to write them down and express ourselves, even if people tell us that we shouldn’t. Not every blog post will be a hit, even my follow-up only has about 9.5% of the same viewership as the first one. But not every blog has to be a hit in order for it to spark discussion and be important.
Everything that has happened to me so far has been because I decided to take a chance and write what I felt. I feel that I need to take this opportunity to encourage others to do the same. To make the leap. To begin to write.
So, this is what I will do. If you tweet me a post you wrote and you are 19 years old or younger, I will recommend it (if the post is on Medium) and showcase it below. The point of this is to encourage others in my age group to write and to express themselves.
Our voices matter and our opinions matter. Age is just a number and everyone has to start somewhere. Why not start now?
Have anything I should add? Feel free to comment, tweet me, email me, or write a response!
Feel free to learn more about me by following me on Twitter or visiting my website.
