I was excited to write online again, but then I saw what was happening on Medium.
I dislike that art and writing have become “content creation,” and I’m seeing way too many blogs and articles of “X things I did to get Y results,” “Here are X ways you can make $X by writing,” and “How I got to ABC by doing 123”. While I appreciate writers sharing how they monetized their writing, this algorithm-feeding article writing has contributed to losing the romance of writing.
Making money from writing is nuanced. Sure, financial freedom is a status we all want to achieve, and yes, it’s great that writers have evolved to make their big break sooner and in more creative and entrepreneurial ways. But what have we lost in the process?
“Writing” used to sound artistic, timeless, dramatic, humble, pensive, and even noble. But writing online has become what Instagram did to photography: basic, pompous, commercialized, filtered, formulaic, and addictive for all the wrong reasons. At what point is a writer still an artist, and at point, do they become a feeder of an algorithm because they’re reaping the benefits of views, likes, endorsements, and popularity?
I don’t mean to sound scathing, but I attempt to critique. Writing to create monetizing content, for the sake of attention and recognition, for the sake of a side hustle, and for the sake of producing quantifiable pieces over quality pieces is turning artistic writers into a factory of writers. And I can’t help but blame our social structures and digital world. It appears everyone wants to be influential, glamorous, and entrepreneurial. While some gravitate towards creating consumptive and fast content using TikTok and Instagram, others are turning to blogs. Ultimately, I fear it's evolving humans into money-generating machines. But to dwell on that, it's for another time.
