If we look at the past, most great writers were not social butterflies, on the contrary they were often quite lonesome because they needed isolation.

I believe many of them would have found disturbing the concept that in order to get your stuff read you need to beg for attention by giving attention, praising and liking as many people as possible, with bonus points if you are. good looking. That’s the essence of social media: you get what you give, you engage and you make yourself and/or your stuff desirable.

I am not a great writer, English is not even my first language, but recently I wrote an article that costed me endless nights of research and turned me into a caveman. I shouldn’t say it myself, but it’s an article that deserves attention since it sheds new light on Leonardo Da Vinci’s life and works and reveals who was the model for Mona Lisa and other of his masterpieces, bringing plenty of photographic evidence. And yet, it appears that in order to bring attention to it on Medium I have to spend hours giving attention and recognition to others, which I personally find not very ethical since, as for most people, my secret purpose would be to get attention for my stuff.

I would be dishonest if I tried to appear more “pure” than others, after all I am also using this comment to bring attention to my revelations on Leonardo Da Vinci.

Medium is the least to blame for this state of things since it raises the bar higher in terms of quality of content and intellectual level of its users. Here my research doesn’t have to stand the invincible competition of funny cats, and it can be presented in a beautiful way.

My criticism is towards social media in general, I argue that by rewarding popularity (the more something attracts engagement the more is valuable and worth seeing) social media subtly but strongly pushes towards conformism and hypocrisy, punishing what is more difficult, controversial, outside the chorus.

The raise of populisms in my view has a lot to do with the raise of social media, Facebook in particular. Medium as said is the least to blame, and my wish is that you guys will keep on improving your algorithm in a way that valuable writings from bad marketers, sociopaths, and people out of the chorus won’t remain in the shadows. It was often people like them who helped our culture and societies evolve.