Feb 25, 2018
Sigh! Sigh! Sigh!
A yet another email newsletter with NOTHING in it I would care to read. But then I was so happy to find the button of my dreams at the bottom of it —
For a short blissful moment my heart jumped with joy and excitement. Oh, my, I will finally be able to have a say in this and get rid of the publications I UNFOLLOWED AND DO NOT WISH TO FOLLOW ANY LONGER NOR HEAR ABOUT THEM AGAIN, such as The Mission!
Only, I couldn’t. SIGH, SIGH, SIGH! Instead, Medium kept pushing The bloody Mission (and the rest of the things I do not care to read a single tiny little bit) in my face, bending my arm and trying to break my spirit by telling me to follow it. I DO NOT WANT TO FOLLOW IT, I THOUGHT I MADE THAT ABUNDANTLY CLEAR WHEN I UNFOLLOWED IT, SO PLEASE STOP DOING THIS TO ME!!!!!!!!!
Please stop pretending that you know better than me what I want to see in my email newsletter and what stories I would like to read, please start listening, please give me the option to actually choose what and who do I want to follow and read instead of force-feeding me your selection.
Your selection is YOUR selection and NOT mine. I do not care one iota about YOUR selection, but I do care a whole lot about MINE. How hard is it to understand this?
For the love of God, Ev Williams and the rest of the Medium crew, let me be who I am — a grownup person who knows her taste better than you and your algorithm ever could. I look for the unusual, I look for the real, I look for surprises (and the kind of surprises I certainly cannot find by clicking your ‘Surprise Me’ button that only makes me SIGH even louder).
Oh, Medium, I love you so much but you make me so sad!
Is it a good idea to turn this into a yet another kind of ‘seen so many times before’ media? No offense, but is it a good idea to bring on your team people who have built their career in the traditional media? How is this revolutionary?
I have nothing but respect for Time or at least what it used to be (God knows what will become of it), but, frankly and bluntly, is it really such a great idea to bring in its editor? Time means traditional, Time means mainstream, whoever worked there was used to that and worked in accord with that. Time also means quality, yes, by all means, but how is it revolutionary?
For those who have no idea what I’m referring to, read this:
How is this ‘new’ approach different? How can someone who has built a career in traditional media understand and actually enact a media revolution? From what I’ve seen so far, nope, it’s not happening and it most likely won’t happen. Not like this, that’s for sure.
Do we really need more of this? Do we really need to ‘reinvent the wheel’ for the n-th time instead of truly making something new, or at least allowing it to happen and thrive and live freely? Do we?
