PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE GIVE ME SOME HEART!
What’s with everyone asking people to click the little green heart at the bottom of every post?
I will admit I tried it after I saw Jon Westenberg doing it. I’m totally a Jon fan-boy, so back off! And yeah, it was fun to copy him for a few posts. Maybe I even got a few extra hearts out of the deal!
[*Credit to Jules for some CTSF here.]
But now even brand-new writers to Medium are putting it on every one of their posts.
Has this suddenly become a best practice?
I was reading a lovely post from a new writer and there it was. I thought, “no biggee.” And then I saw it again on a piece of poetry.
Really? On a poem?
I don’t know why, but this really made me stop and gape a bit. I love me a poem, but they are not exactly the category of writing I expect to go viral or be featured on the Medium homepage. But there it was.
Maybe new authors are concerned that their readers do not know what the green heart is for. It’s nothing more than a public service campaign message. A bunch of angry, OCD librarians got together to overcome the tyranny and misunderstandings surrounding the little green heart so as to maximize the enjoyment and understanding of everyone on the Internet.
Um, I think not.
Maybe we have become so addicted to getting hearts and likes and follows that we would rather avoid writing and instead spend our time scouring the Internet for ways to increase our clicks and sculpt our tag-lines.
Or maybe they found my old posts and are copying me.
If so, I’m feeling more than a little guilty right about now.
That said, this post is over. So here goes.
IF YOU LIKED THIS POST EVEN A TINY BIT, PLEASE SHOW YOUR UNDYING GRATITUDE BY CLICKING THE LITTLE GREEN HEART BELOW. NO. DOWN A BIT. THEN OVER TO THE LEFT. NO! YOU SCROLLED TOO FAR! OH DEAR LORDS ABOVE! JUST CLICK THE F’ING HEART!
P.S. Mom, just call me and I will explain how to do it.
