Do Claps Really Matter?
They’re not as important as you think.
Do claps really matter?
This was the question ringing through my head on a lonely weekday afternoon as I scrolled through my Medium profile. I’d been reading some stories from the publications I follow and noticed that they had been getting literally thousands of claps. Feeling a little insecure, I started clicking on each one of my stories, trying to figure out what my average amount of claps was.
I’ve been on Medium for just shy of a year now, and I’ve only ever had one story go viral. Sure, I’ve had some other successful pieces — I’ve had ones with lots of comments, ones where I made a decent amount of money, and ones that got a ton of views and reads. Claps aside, I’ve had a pretty good year on Medium thus far, and it continues to get better and better. So why was I so preoccupied with the amount of claps I’m getting in general?
Claps don’t matter as much as you think they do.
I promise you, claps are not the be-all-end-all of your writing career, as I eventually learned. It’s fantastic to get lots of claps on one story, but a lack of claps is not a determinant that your story is bad or unappealing to readers. Let’s unpack this.
