NEWLETTER 2020–10–19
Newsletter October 19th, 2020 –Autism, Medium, and Social Reciprocity
Reciprocity on Medium – The Key to Success
Dear Readers, Writers and Editors,
It is inherent to many of us who have Autism to have deficits in Social Reciprocity. If you do not not what the term “Social Reciprocity” means, it can be defined in the following way:
Social Reciprocity
¹ “Social Reciprocity is the back-and-forth flow of social interaction. The term reciprocity refers to how the behavior of one person influences and is influenced by the behavior of another person and vice versa.
Social Reciprocity is the dance of social interaction and involves partners working together on a common goal of successful interaction. Adjustments are made by both partners until success is achieved.
The skills involved in Social Reciprocity begins with showing interest in interacting with others and exchanging smiles. This builds to being able to share conventional meanings with words, and later topics, in conversation.
Impairment in Social Reciprocity may be seen in not taking an active role in social games, preferring solitary activities, or using a person’s hand as a tool or a person as if they are mechanical objects. This may lead to not noticing another person’s distress or lack of interest in the focus or topic of conversation.”
How Medium Can Improve Your Deficits in Social Reciprocity
Did you know that the key to gaining more followers, exposing your stories to more readers, getting more claps, highlights, and responses, and even earning more money (if you in the Medium Partner Program) is through Social Reciprocity?
Social Reciprocity does not only apply to verbal communication in the give-and-take maintenance of friendships, but on Medium it is also plays a huge role in written communication between readers and writers.
Some Simple Ways To Improve Your Social Reciprocity And Gain More Popularity for your Stories on Medium
The definition at the beginning of this Newsletter states that “Social Reciprocity is the back-and-forth flow of social interaction. The term reciprocity refers to how the behavior of one person influences and is influenced by the behavior of another person and vice versa.”
The following are examples of the back-and-forth flow of social interaction on Medium:
Example #1
- You publish a story on Medium
- Another Medium member either claps for your story, highlights your story, writes a response to your story, or follows you
- In return, you go to that users profile, find some stories you like that they wrote, and then you clap, highlight, and finally as the most important gift of all in social interaction between reader and writer is to write a sincere response to their story and how it relates to you on a personal level.
- By making a purpose driven effort to do everything above, you are practicing Social Reciprocity. This is the back-and-forth Social Interaction that will improve tremendously the likelihood that the writer whose story you read will start another reciprocation cycle by reading other stories you wrote, and as well do all those actions described in #3
Example #2
- Don’t just sit back and wait for other people to read your story. but instead read, read, read, other people’s stories. Not only will you gain the enjoyment of reading, but you will also improve your skills as a writer by discovering the many, many styles of writing to add to your writer’s tool box.
- Find the top writers on the subject matter you are interested in and read their story in depth and then perform all the actions in Example #1 – 3.
- Making a purpose driven effort to do all of the above as a routine will, as in Example #1, drive that top writer back to your stories for another reciprocation cycle.
Finally – Support Our Own Publication and Our Own Writers
Make it a point to read, clap, highlight, and write responses to other members stories within the ArtfullyAutistic Medium Publication itself. Make that a routine as well, as a show of support for our members and the Publication as a whole.
Sincerely,
Keira Fulton-Lees
Artfully Autistic Advocate for Autism
artfullyautisticpublication@gmail.com
Creator, Editor and Writer for the Medium Publication:
- ArtfullyAutistic — The Beauty of Autism Within the Written Word, Music, Crafts, and the Visual Arts
Citations
¹ Autism Society of Baltimore-Chesapeake (ASBC) (© 2020). Social Reciprocity (Glossary). Retrieved 21:03, October 20, 2020, from https://www.baltimoreautismsociety.org/glossary/term/social-reciprocity/
