4 Benefits of Scrolling Your Medium Feed With The Intent To Leave 3 Meaningful Comments
Have you ever kept moving your finger up on the Medium app to scroll through your feed?
Maybe you’ve done it on other social media apps like YouTube. TikTok. Instagram. Or LinkedIn.
You weren’t even looking for anything specific. You were simply passing time.
And if a headline caught your attention, you’d spend a few seconds reading it.
Maybe, you’d even give it a clap if you liked it.
You’re not the only one who does this. I’m guilty of passively consuming content, too.
And the scary thing is… this mindless scrolling can last for a while.
In fact, most people spend up to 147 minutes per day on social media. That’s 53, 655 minutes in a year. 894.25 hours.
Imagine what you could do with that time. How much you could accomplish?
So, lately, I’ve started to consume content more mindfully.
How?
I scroll the feed with the intent to leave 3 meaningful comments. Once I’ve hit the goal, I exit the platform.
By the way, these comments can’t be just “Great article!” But more on that later.
Anyway, I’ve noticed that scrolling the feed with the intent to leave 3 meaningful comments has 4 benefits.
It helps you grow on Medium.
Reading other writers’ articles, highlighting, giving claps, and leaving comments are forms of engagement.
And engagement is critical for growth on Medium because it:
Increases your visibility on the platform
Attracts potential freelance clients
Attracts more followers and higher retention rates
Brings writers together to foster a loyal and trusting connection
You save a lot of time.
If you don’t set a time limit, you can spend hours looking for articles to read.
So, by setting a goal to write 3 meaningful comments, I:
Have guilt-free time to search for interesting articles that capture my attention
Leave Medium after I write 3 valuable comments
At most, this takes me about 45 minutes. And then I use the extra time to write and create instead of passively consuming content.
You build connections with other writers.
Austin Kleon says, “Don’t become human spam.” Essentially, don’t write, post, and ghost.
Because people will feel like they’re being spoken at and not engaged with.
They might think you’re self-serving and don’t care about others since you don’t read, learn, or interact with them.
By engaging with other writers, you:
Get to meet like-minded peers to share knowledge and ideas, learn from, and grow with
Are exposed to more client opportunities because creating networks gets you more referrals
Enjoy writing on Medium more because you’ll feel like you’re getting a valuable experience
You hone your critical thinking skills.
In schools, you listen to lectures. You memorize. You recite information.
Rarely, do you apply the information being taught.
When this happens, you lose your ability to think critically. To make clear and reasoned judgements.
But if you comment mindfully about what you read, you begin to develop this ability again.
Here are some questions I think about while I read articles:
Why did this title capture my attention?
Do I agree or disagree with what’s been written? Why or why not?
Do I have a personal story relating to this topic?
Have I read other books or articles about this topic?
Can I add anything meaningful to what’s been said?
Wrapping Things Up
Here are the 4 benefits of scrolling your Medium feed to leave three meaningful comments:
It helps you grow on the platform.
You save a lot of time.
You build your network.
You develop your critical thinking skills.
Photo by Artem Beliaikin on Unsplash