Ever since I started to write for Odyssey, I noticed a trend in the number of views my articles would receive; the articles that were "fluff" – 50 Reasons To Thank Your Boyfriend – would receive far more views than the articles that were content heavy – What Feminism Is Not. While I can account some of this to people being more likely to share articles that are not "offensive" to others, meaning not stating anyone’s political affiliation or political views, it still does blow my mind. When I sit down to write an article, I do not have the intention to write what will receive the most views or shares; however, writing for an online publication, I do feel I should be writing articles that will contribute shares to our chapter of the publication. That then means I normally end up writing "fluff" articles that will get shares, instead of writing about things I am absolutely passionate about.
This is not just an issue with online publications. This is what I would call a "modern day struggle" – writing and posting what you want to post versus writing and posting what will get the most views, likes and shares. This is often brought up by YouTubers who make their income solely off of their YouTube profits. One in particular, Lindsey Hughes (AKA BeautyBaby44) posted a video about this on her channel in the past and many others have done so, as well. This is also something that crosses my mind when I post a photo to Instagram – do I post what will get likes or what I want to post? I usually (99.99999 percent of the time) end up posting what I want to post, regardless of how frequently I post or any other "unbreakable rules of Instagram" I would be breaking. While the issue here is not whether or not they are content heavy photos, it is still crossing my mind that I need to please others with my posts on my social media account.
Writing for Odyssey is one of the best decisions I have made in my life, as I now have a source to write about issues that are truly important to me. So, why do I let the number of views an article will receive impact my decision to write about an important topic?
Society has molded us, millennials especially, to view our worth by how many friends we have on Facebook, how many Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram followers we have, how many likes we get on a photo and how many retweets our tweets get. But that is simply not how the real world works. So, why do I let that mindset impact my writing?
What we post on the Internet will be there forever. I know I am not the first to tell you this, as most schools integrated it into the curriculum to deter us from posting risqué photos of ourselves online; however, it is not only about risqué photos. What we post online, whether it be fluff or content heavy writing, will be there forever for our future job searchers to view, for our future spouses to view, for our future kids to view. It will be there forever.
I encourage everyone to post whatever you want, regardless of the likes it gets. Post stuff you would be proud of your future kids finding. Post something that makes you happy.
