The 100 Follower Minimum For Payouts — Our Shattering Societal Standards and The Social Media Era

I have been on Medium since February of 2021, and have been writing for a year now, here. In that time, a few of my blogs have gained momentum and I have actually managed to profit from them, and they continue to gain momentum each month.

My follower count has very slowly been growing, and with little to no effort from my part at all, I reached 33 followers, most of whom are people I do not know. I considered this a great success. I wanted my work to shine for itself like a beacon of light in a shaded forest, and beckon to those who are willing to bask in the warm rays of my ready words.

Advertising myself has never been my style, as someone who has, when between morality and social acceptance, tries my very best to choose morality every time. I would rather be alone than be loved for being someone who tried to fit in by doing things out of character for me, or unempathetic, or inconsiderate. When I cause pain to other people I feel deep shame. I do not feel any glory at the top of a mountain I had to scheme to climb up. I want my efforts to be filled with love and light. I want my efforts in my successes to have been made because I was true and good. Not because I am a successful social media marketer. Not because I am cunning and deceitful and a show-off. But through color and creativity and the pouring of my soul.

And in this waterfall of the essence of my heart are my words, which reflect the invisible fractals of my inner-poetic universe.

And for some reason, unbeknownst to me, if I would like to keep the monthly coffee change I have been basking with pride and glory in for the juices of which I have squeezed out of this plum-ripened sponge of a soul I have —

Now, a simple number may defeat it all.

From one tree can come one thousand blossoms, and yet my integrity now must be sacrificed as I face the imminent doom that is March 2nd, the day my Stripe account will be stripped of payment from my writings.

I wonder what is to come of this mockery of media in this era where we have brought so much light on our evils and yet we blaze them before each other as if the crowd watching defined the significance of the tree that plummeted to the ground.

What have we become if we all have started to define each other by numerical popularity?

Who are we turning into if the significance of our naked hearts and souls were judged by influence alone?

Is it that we have lost all modicum of personal integrity and we are now a pack of sheep, bowing to one glorified wolf, sheathed in a coat that glows and sparkles and makes the rest of us cower before it?

What is this era of mass social media marketing and what is our generation coming to, if worth is judged by affluence alone?

Medium — I say to you — you have become a part of the status quo. You have homogenized yourself with the forbidden fruit that is the social media modus operandi. You have shined away some of the hope that gleaned before you as a new chance for those who are brilliant to not hop aboard a train that may come apart as it’s parts are formed by arms instead of solidarity.

I ask you — in a society where we define each other, can we define ourselves? Who are we becoming if we lose our characters in favor of what is popular — for the moment.

This 100 follower requirement is nothing revolutionary. It spits on those who have worked hard to begin their work on their own merit. This is simple, numerical chain reaction. It is another societal loss of integrity. Where popularity wins in favor of character. Where number wins in favor of inquisition. We now no longer base our gazes on that which is brimming with quality and beauty. We peer, and computational algorithms present us with that which has the largest number.

Ground-breaking.