Writing
Why I’m Not Following You Back on Medium
It’s not me, it’s you.
Hello, my name is Erin, and I might not be following you back on Medium. If I’m not, please allow me a few minutes to explain why.
Do you write nonstop about crypto? Not only do I not care about crypto, I REALLY don’t care about crypto. And odds are, you’re selling something, so I am not going to follow you on Medium.
Are you so politically opposite of me that if we met in person, one of us would punch the other in the throat? Then why in the wide, wide world of sports are you following me, and why do you want me to follow you? That makes no sense at all.
Do you have a photo of yourself, a pet, or even a coffee cup as your “bio” picture, or is it blank? Do you have a bio? Have you written an article? An essay? A poem? A grocery list? No? I’m not going to follow you, because you are most likely not an actual person.
Is every single thing you write self-promotion? Are you a condescending piece of shit who lords yourself over all of us “little writers” while bragging about how many followers you have? If you have so many followers, you don’t need me, do ya?
Do you only write clickbait? “I Made $25K In One Week On Medium And You Can Too!”? I guess the better question is do you write bullshit clickbait? I mean, good for you on your massive income, but how’s your soul? Not following you, snookums, no way.
This. Isn’t. Twitter. I am not required to follow back every single person who follows me. I follow good (and great) writers on Medium, and that’s it. I’m not here to invest in NFTs or crypto, I’m not here to buy your program on how to make money selling your program to other people, and I’m not here to read essays so awful they make me weep for humanity.
I don’t expect everyone on Medium to write like AJ Jacobs or Barbara Kingsolver. I do expect writers to be able to put together a coherent sentence, understand basic grammar and punctuation, and express themselves in a cohesive fashion.
Before anyone yells at me, yes, I understand there are many writers here for whom English is not their first language. Hell, English is my first language, and sometimes, I leave out a word or a comma. Those aren’t the people to whom I am referring. Honestly, I believe it takes immense courage and passion to write in a language that is not yours.
We’ve all read one of those articles. Three paragraphs of “look how fabulous I am” then links to their Medium referral, their Patreon, their Ko-fi, their LinkedIn, their other blog, their other other blog, their Instagram, and finally, their website where they will sell you something to make you as awful a writer as they are.
I still need help writing on Medium, which is why I have bookmarked Medium articles about formatting and tips. This one by Elin Melaas is one of the most helpful, and I refer to it time and time again.
In closing, let me say (write) that this is my happy place. Medium helped me rediscover my joy of writing. No one is going to take that away from me. Not click baiters, not scammers, not bots, not crypto experts, no one. And if I lose some followers who read this piece and see themselves in it, oh well.
I write because I love to write, and I follow other people who love to write. The end.
