The Medium is the Masses.

Vox populi vox Dei. (You’ve got to be kidding!)

Without seeing my face, you can’t tell I’m depressed. But aren’t you depressed, too? Just about everybody seems to be lamenting the sacrifice of quality to quantity in today’s media landscape:

Jim VandeHei, the outgoing CEO and co-founder of Politico, says the battleground for clicks means news organizations are ignoring the needs of smart readers and are falling into “the crap trap” of producing journalism simply designed to get the largest readership possible. “Everyone brags about 100 million unique visitors. So what? What does that mean?”

Peak content, it’s called: generating stories simply to get as much traffic as possible. Media analyst Chris Sutcliffe writes: “Publishers’ reliance on ad revenue from huge audiences means they’ll inevitably resort to lowest common denominator-style publishing if they ever need a boost. But peak content is an ill wind that’s blowing no publishers any good….”

And I — craving Medium Followers and their “Recommends” — must be no good, either. Craven (for a kind of pun), craven me — my craving is little different from a Middle School girl’s abandoning all principles in the never-ending, yet pointless, quest to be popular.

Is that really why I’m writing this essay? Just to be popular? Do I really want to know my deepest motives? Then, I can really feel depressed when I realize:

There’s probably nothing — no matter how craven or brazen — I wouldn’t do to be “Trending on Twitter”…. Or get a high “Amazon Ranking”…. or write one of “Medium’s Top Stories” and be the “Most Popular Today”….

But what’s the difference between Followers and Stalkers? And why do I crave one and not the other? Why are catcalls on the street demeaning, yet “Recommends” on Medium or “Likes” on Facebook so uplifting?

Inquiring minds want to know. So does my body. The “Likes” that trigger a brain’s endorphin rush also sometimes make me wet — a fact that in today’s oversharing society I’m not embarrassed to admit and loudly whisper in your ear.

What does that say about me? About society?

Does that make me promiscuous, always seeking confirmation/validation in numbers? In feudal times, it was “might makes right.” Is today’s democratic “the most makes right” really any better?

That I have almost 10,000 friends and followers on Facebook is something proudly to brag about. But what if I were to confess that I had been fucked by 10,000 different men? Not to mention innumerable women with dildos, plus the occasional animal (but none bigger than a horse!). A gangbang girl, yes!

Would I be a sideshow freak? Or a savvy brand marketer?

And who will be the next U.S. President? A sideshow freak? A savvy brand marketer?

Vox populi vox Dei. You’ve got to be kidding.

No wonder I’m depressed.

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