Men are way more Popular than Women
Only three women are among Medium’s top 50 writers: Sarah Cooper, Julie Zhuo, and Hillary Clinton. Don’t bother looking for minorities; let me tell you. There are five of them. And zoomed out to 75%, the women even fit into one screenshot. Though it’s doubtful that starry-eyed optimist HRC is merrily click-clacking away in hopeful oblivion for her big break from behind a keyboard somewhere. Whoever authors her account probably has more in common with the other top 47 dudes than our three lucky ladies.
Women manage more of a showing in the top 100 though. Claiming 15 spots after 50th. The rest are high-powered bros. Either leveraging extensive IRL networks, or grandfathering large preexisting URL ones from the two social medias integrated into Medium. Or maybe women are just bad writers.
So you can count on us, ladies. Men who will not only think for you, but also express your most puzzling, perplexing, and ineffable thoughts.
Plagued by indecision. Yearning for the firm, guiding hand of some dude.
Attention deficit disorder
Assume that this male predominance is simply a function of large networks and not shitty girl writers. It is fundamentally opposed to developing quality content. Because it’s not designed for that; it’s designed for quantity. Lots of little quantities. Just enough to make infinitesimal people think they matter.
Twatter strictly limits the writing parameters. Facespace is a hell of howling, mournful souls desperate to be noticed. And even Medium tells us that the neanderthals with whom we must share this mortal coil lack the time or attention to read more than a mere three minutes.
Hard sells to tough audiences lacking the attention span necessary to make it through three measly minutes of internet-optimized text. Or the even more stupefying and ominous 140 characters for our primate brethren. It’s insulting and mindnumbing to think that 21st century thought has been so ably datamined and compressed into three-sentence, three-minute submission.
The impact of an entire generation diagnosed with attention deficit disorders now let loose online. Consumed by their own self-importance. Constellations of gleefully unselfaware narcissi orbiting needy stars of ceaseless validation.
Swipe for new content. New content available. Refresh. Update. Click.
Attention-starved
Embarrassingly, a similar uncontrollable outburst of narcissistic nihilism and all-consuming desire for attention led to this woebegone, misbegotten essay. I don’t want to be a clickbait sellout, but as Quincy Larson so aptly posits:
“As a writer, you fight a war against indifference. You have to force people to care enough to click through to your story. You have to convince them to take a chance on you…You have only two weapons against the relentless scroll of news feeds: a headline and an image.”
Holy shit that’s depressing. But right fucking on at the same time.
Off topic
History, race, gender, white privilege, christianity, islam, atheism, antitheism, diversity, pop culture, family values, America, Russia, politics, government, antifa, and the rightwing openly flirting with fascism motivate me to pick up the pen. Or keyboard as it were.
But despite truly enjoying the writing itself, nothing matters more to my continued pen-to-paper enthusiasm than growing the followship and getting them recs. It’s absurd. I’m not writing for myself or the people who regularly take the time time to read it; I’m writing for people I don’t even know who haven’t even found me online yet.
In fact, I’m not writing for anyone; I’m writing for everyone! Because the only thing that awaits after going viral with some piece of shit top ten list or tired rehashing of mainstream media points ad nauseam is a new audience. There will never be actualization after a thousand likes or followers.
Just 10, and then 20 thousand.
Algorithms check
Being a top writer in racism, government, and history — strangely more women among us: seven of the government 50; 10 of the history 50, and a strong showing 0f 18 under racism — has shown me that however equal the algorithms ostensibly make us, we aren’t.
It’s all about who brings more facetwit friends to the Medium party. As also evidenced by the total bullshit of only three women and five minority authors among the overall top 50. So level the playing field. If these algorithms are so awesome, up our shit.
This is a call for female, minority, top, and suggested writer affirmative action, Ev Williams. Just because some of us have the better judgement not to burn all our waking hours lurking in cyberspace doesn’t mean our audience-building must suffer for it. Have a heart. Once you identify high read rates, help us have our cake and eat it too. Please.
The only reason to go down this vile rabbithole of self-examination, esteem, and loathing is because its outcomes crush the creative spirit. Exploring and examining the netherworld of click-to-like, grow-the-followship, search engine optimization is the only way to overcome it.
Obscured behind monetized lies bereft of intrinsic worth and galvanized by the digital generation’s endless, undying need for approval and validation. Nobody has a thousand friends. We’re not that important. No one cares what we’re doing. Stop updating status. Both it and we are meaningless.
And in denial of our own personal insignificance.
Clickbait and switch
If writing relies essentially or immanently on a provocative pic, clever title, or intriguing lede, self-validation must be the only point. Faceless millions isolated from one other by computer screens and virtual irreality. Thirsting to have their innermost deep thoughts legitimized by utter strangers.
Because producing quality content depends on finding a way to gain exposure without sacrificing the ideals that make one’s writing compelling or engaging in the first place. Preoccupations and anxiety about whether low numbers are a function of no one knowing or caring kill the vibe man.
Good writing isn’t born of the incessant, pitiful narcissism that the click-to-everything, digital generation has subsumed as key to a fulfilling online life.
Grow your followship at all costs.
Dollar signs
Maybe there’s an innocuous, anodyne, benign explanation for why only three women and five minorities make the top 50 most-followed. But even if there isn’t, more power to the other 40 high-powered white bros. They certainly excel at whatever it is they do.
Tech startup, angel investor, venture capital, datamined, market-researched, internet pioneers. Building brands, generating clicks, and commoditizing everything. That’s great man. Slap a dollar sign on it.
Or as Bill Hicks acrimoniously put it about metacritics like us:
“Go for that anti-marketing dollar. That’s a good market…or the indignation dollar. That’s a big dollar. A lot of people are feeling that indignation. We’ve done research. Huge market…putting a goddamn dollar sign on every fucking thing on this planet…ooh, the anger dollar. Huge. Huge in times of recession. Giant market.”
Like it? Click something please. I integrate commenters’ insights into new pieces, so thanks for the ideas too! I don’t want your money; I want your readership. If I may be so bold, you might also like one of these.
