ChatGPT is Going to Destroy Medium

I left Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. I’ll leave this platform, too.

Having been on this platform since 2017 or 2018 or whatever, I think I’m one of the elder writers around here. I was here in the good old days before paid memberships were a thing, when the platform was a less algorithm-driven, when good writing was your only friend. I had a number of essays reach Medium’s front page — even on relatively obscure topics like the clean food movement. It was a good time.

Those days, where good writing democratically rose to the top, are gone. And in its place is the kind of nonsense that a paying membership was supposed to prevent from happening:

• Endless streams of essays based on other things you’ve read
• Authors rewarded for “content creation” rather than good writing and artistry

I remember the first time I read a SINGLE essay about Bernie Sanders written by Umair Haque; and I’m not going to link him here, lest you share my fate: minutes later, my “recommended” feed was absolutely filled to the rafters with essays written by this same guy, one after another after another, each only nominally different than the last, all revolving around how much America sucks and the death of capitalism etc. etc. etc.