Medium has been compared to Pinterest. Judging from the founders' intent, I think it's too early to say exactly what Medium is or isn't. That's so cool. They're using the ebb and flow of user feedback to build this new publishing platform.
Victoria, our oldest daughter, turned me onto Pinterest a while back. She was excited about the exposure and interest that it was generating for her This Girl's Gotta Eat! website. I saw Pinterest fitting a different need. I've been writing online since 1997. In the early years I had to write anonymously for fear I would be fired from my day job. Years later after revealing my identity, I continued to write about business, management and leadership while choosing to build a particular online image. I'll not go into details but it was very calculated and intentional and didn't reveal much personally. Although my topics changed, I continued to write in this manner until becoming disabled in 2009 and losing my job. Finally, I could just be myself online!
I began using Pinterest with the intention of revealing stuff about me that had never ever made the Internet. But Pinterest has this magically alluring characteristic that draws one in and then sends them down different paths. While I didn't get swept into the wedding planning frenzy (Pinterest's main audience is women), I did get outrageously addicted to women's tattoo's. I have other categories that don't reveal much about myself either like, Where Books Dwell, Sis's Artwork, House Organization etc. So now one can go to my Pinterest account and get a 80,000 foot snapshot of me, but other than my Essence board, I'm not quite satisfied with the self-portrait. When I finally realized that I'd drifted from my original intent, I chose not to change because I actually like what I'm doing at Pinterest. Thus, Medium...
Right now I see two two distinct purposes for Medium. One, to attempt to paint a clear and coherent picture of myself. After holding so much back from the online world I wonder how successful I will be, but we'll see. The other is to support my helping youth explore career pathways at Cultivating Awe and work at Standing Out in a Sea of Sameness...which are both related.
I'm not going to say that Medium is going to be the next best Facebook because I would forever jynx and doom it, I'm just gonna say it looks like a site that will be of great use to me.
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