MEDIUM | CULTURE
Is No Clap or a Single Clap Worse? A Medium Debate
Exploring two takes on the unspoken social gaffe
“Seriously? One Clap?,” asked Medium writer Rusty Shackleford on Friday.
In his post, the freelancer explained that he’s been receiving a lot of single claps lately and when it happens he wonders if it was a mistake.
Either way, it really does happen.
Someone views your page and decides to follow you. They leave you a comment on your most recent story. But you look at your story to see “1” beside the clap icon at the bottom of your story.
How do you take it?
If you’re like me and weren’t always aware of this mysterious phenomenon, you can clap up to 50 times for an article or comment on Medium.
“I don’t expect to get fifty claps every time I write something but I know it’s better than a single clap,” Rusty elaborates.
He argues that since people pour their hearts into their writing, and others leave up to 50 claps, 1 clap is a major faux pas.
“The fact that you left one clap means you read it and either you didn’t like it or you thought it only warranted one clap.”
Since reading Rusty’s humourous post, I’ve seen a few other stories cutting down the single clap gaffe.
What gall, they say.
But some people are all for the single clap
Back in 2017, humour writer @Alex Baia outed himself as a single clapper.
“Your Medium story amuses me. I shall clap once,” he said in his article I Am The One Who Claps Once.
It’s a mistake if he claps twice. He admits he prefers that people are left guessing despite how impacted he is by the story.
“I clap just once, to let you know you have given me the smallest, non-zero amount of pleasure from reading a story.”
A lesson Alex said he learned from his father about not showing too much appreciation.
In the comments of both of these articles, users divulge not always knowing about the 50 clap option.
Fair.
You either have to accidentally clap more than once to figure it out, infer by seeing your interaction-to-clap ratio, or someone tells you.
But even if you know about the option, are you aware that it’s considered rude to click only once?
Are there really monsters out there that use the single clap as a passive aggressive way to say “your story sucks”?
I liken the single clap to the slow clap IRL.
Both are ways to show that something doesn’t land well.
But even if someone dislikes a joke delivered on stage by a comedian, they’ll either slow clap or not clap at all.
Clapping once in real life would be seriously weird. I’m not sure people would even be able to suss out what was happening.
But you only “like” once on virtually every other platform.
Since learning about this etiquette, I usually give 50 kudos. Sometimes I’ll give 10 if I’m in a hurry.
If I’m honest, some days I don’t even know how many claps I’ve given after holding down the button for a while. And I’ve given one clap as a mistake at times.
But what do you do and think?
I mean, a single clap is an interaction — right? It helps writers out via algorithmic magic. So, would you prefer people interact with your story once or not bother?
Would you dare to single clap in real life?
