An Outdated Blogging Site: Medium
Prior to my blogging class I was unaware of Medium. I never really had an interest in creating a blog so I only knew a few blogging platforms from YouTube ads like Wix and Squarespace. My first impressions of Medium is that it was plain and pretty boring looking. While creating my first post I got to fully experience and navigate around the site. I’m unimpressed with the lack of opportunities to make the blog look the way you fully want it to. The all white look might work for some people but I personally would like some creative freedom. The main issue that I have with this site is the inability to adjust photos, both sizing and placement. When I wanted to make a photo smaller I would have to put it on Microsoft Word, shrink it, then re save it and then finally put it in my post. The placement was limited to the center of the page or to the left of the text. After exploring some other blogging sites I discovered that they did give you the opportunity to change the color, look and overall aesthetic. Wix for example, provides hundreds of templates for the creators to choose from. When you google “blog websites” Medium does not come up on the first page so I feel like you really have to go out if your way to use this site and I do not really see many benefits to choosing it over the others.
The words can only be two sizes and you can bold or italicize the words. It does allow you to include in text links which is helpful to provided further details or sourcing.
Medium does allow their creators to get behind a paywall when they gain a bit of a following for your content. But for a reader like me, it limits the posts I can read and puts a cap on how many blogs posts I can see per day. While doing research a popup came up and said “You read a lot. We like it.” and it wanted me to pay $5 a month to have a membership to Medium. But since I’m not a huge fan of Medium, I will not be upgrading. Maybe if you do pay for the membership then you will have more freedom and have more creative abilities when making a post. I would be interested to know how many people are a member to see a greater amount of posts per week. I personally think Medium is less professional and aided at amateur bloggers rather than someone with a large following. Typically, when a blogger makes it big they will create their own website because they will start to form their own relationships with sponsors, which Medium doesn’t allow. Medium does compensate their bloggers with greater views but I’m unsure how much they can make off each post. If I were to create a blog outside of the class I would find another site that gives the writer more create freedom with the design of the blog.
I think people will continue to blog and it will become even bigger but I’m not sure about the future of Medium. Its not huge to begin with and I don’t think it will have a burst of new bloggers on their site to put it on the same level as other blogging sites but the bloggers on Medium now will probably remain loyal uses. Maybe if they rebranded and changed their demographic it would be targeted to a younger crowd; I picture older people using this site. 20 something year olds prefer to have an aesthetically pleasing look and Medium doesn’t give writers the opportunity to create that. Medium does not let you even change the color of your background. Your only freedom is creating a profile picture and that is no way of expressing the creative aspects of your blog. Websites like Squarespace and Wix target their audience by posting ads on Youtube videos and by being the first few websites when you search “blog websites”. Mediums isn’t making an effort to stay relevant and because of that I think it will continue unconnected to the newer generation. Even when looking though the main bloggers on the front page they all seem to be middle-aged and the future of blogging is in the youth. Blogging gives people the opportunity to reach a greater audience with similar ideas and views so I believe it will continue to grown, just not on Medium.
I think people will continue to blog and it will become even bigger but I’m not sure about the future of Medium. Its not huge to begin with and I don’t think it will have a burst of new bloggers on their site to put it on the same level as other blogging sites but the bloggers on Medium now will probably remain loyal uses. Like I said previously, I will not continue to use Medium. I do like the idea of having a blog as an outlet but I just didn’t like the setup of the site. Maybe if they rebranded and changed their demographic it would be targeted to a younger crowd; I really only picture older people using this site. 20 something year olds prefer to have an aesthetically pleasing look and Medium doesn’t give writers the opportunity to create that. Websites like Squarespace and wix target their audience by posting ads on Youtube videos and by being the first few websites when you search “blog websites”. Mediums isn’t making an effort to stay relevant and because of that I think it will continue unconnected to the newer generation. Even when looking though the main bloggers on the front page they all seem to be middle-aged and the future of blogging is in the youth. Blogging gives people the opportunity to reach a greater audience with similar ideas and views so I believe it will continue to grown, just not on Medium
