Member-only story
A Plea for Authentic Engagement on Medium
The hidden cost of mindless clapping
An important concern in the Medium ecosystem I’ve noticed as a writer is readers (and other writers) clapping for articles based on titles, often, without reading them. Even though that may seem innocent, or even helpful, it has unintended consequences, which impact both authors as well readers.
Let’s understand why this matters and how we can work towards a more authentic community.
Firstly, Drive-by Clapping Sucks!
Readers can clap for an article without reading it. That’s absurd.
These statistics are meant to let the writers know their audience and also Medium in suggesting the content by its own algorithm.
Claps are there to let the author know they did a good job on the article — not for being popular (with the no. of claps) or agreeing with someone. But when you just hand them out like candy, they no longer hold significance to writers.
A greater focus on shallow engagement encourages clickbait titles over substantial content leading to misaligned incentives.
Readers who cannot engage with content before clapping, miss out on valuable insights and viewpoints — they may not be interested in reading it—that’s fine — then why clap in…