Why I Won’t Engage in Follow Trains
via ucf.edu
Ever since I found out Medium has a Partner Program, I was pretty stoked. Getting paid? For my work? My FUN work? Then I found out they recently changed their partner parameters.
Now in order to participate, you must meet the 100 follower requirement.
It seems like a high number, especially if you’re newly beginning like me. Have no fear, followers are here!
In the past few weeks, I’ve seen a vast number of articles on how to gain 100 followers quick, all so they can get into the program faster. You can find any number of articles about it, and many share a familiar sentiment: follow for follow.
The idea is if you follow them, then they will follow you back. Simple but effective. It’s reminiscent of my myspace days (god, did I just date myself). Back when we would obsessively comment ‘pic4pic?’ in order to get comments on our pictures.
For those who wish to engage in follow trains, more power to them. For me, I won’t participate.
My mental health space is really important to me. I cultivate my surroundings and remove things when they are toxic. As such, the same applies to me medium page.
I won’t follow people simply for the sake of followers.
One, because my space is valuable. I’m affected by my feed and I pay attention to what I read. I don’t want to have articles that I don’t enjoy on my feed, and I don’t want to entertain posts that may cause harm to my mental space, that I am careful to protect.
Two, followers mean nothing if they don’t engage with my reading.
I can have all the followers in the world, but it doesn’t matter if they aren’t reading my content. The whole goal is to have readers, not followers.
I want people who will comment on my work and start discussions. I want people to highlight something that stands out to them. I don’t want simply a number on my timeline of pages I show up on.
The exposure is great, sure, but it’s not enough for me. I want more.
If you enjoy my work, please follow me, but even more comment, clap for me, highlight., and share it. It means the world to know you actually consume my content, not just use it as filler space. So, thanks.
