Contribute to your immediate surrounding : On Medium, socially and environmentally
Once you are on your homepage on medium you see a bunch of articles displayed.
There are top articles and there are newly published articles.
Some by the top contributors and some by the new comers.
We have an affinity towards certain type of headlines or topics. From the past few days, I have actively been noticing which headlines grab my attention and which don’t.
Not all material does justice to the headline and not all headlines convey the value a material holds. Some people are great at copy-writing and some simply at sharing something insightful.
But its an attention economy and sadly the one with the most attention right now, gets more attention later.
Even writers here on medium gravitate towards top publications and contributors in their industry. Wanting a slice of their attention and appreciation.
In the whole mix, everyone forgets that just like you, someone else is starting out too.
Instead of comradeship everyone sees competition.
“I de rather hang with the big guns and contribute there, by which I will have more eyeballs on my content and the impact that I crave.”
What they don’t understand is, if we start valuing each other, then the others will have to value us too.
So recently, I started going out of my way to read from people who might have just published their first story. I will take time to respond, add something insightful and clap wholeheartedly if I have liked it.
“You know in the world of internet everything is said and done.”
Whatever a top writer is saying a 17 year old might have written about it on his/her blog somewhere on Medium. You might find it if you look for it.
Definitely there are some articles which truly stand out and have something unique and remarkable to share but other than that most of the things have been said and done. Nothing new period.
New is a concept fed by the click-bait monster of the internet.
If that is the case, then why not encourage someone new to continue doing what they are doing, instead of just adding more noise somewhere which will mostly go unnoticed.
If you are a new writer here, you do understand how it feels like to get no feedback on your writing. It feels like you don’t have a voice. Nobody’s listening
Such is the plight of every emerging content creator anywhere.
So if you are one creator like that, then there are others like you. Why shouldn’t we go clap somewhere, where it will be heard and appreciated?
Similarly, socially and environmentally, we the people have the power.
We don’t have to go out and solve the biggest of the problems. We just have to focus on what we can do in our immediate vicinity.