Is an article with few likes a bad article?

Is an article with few likes a bad article?

"Reached XX views! I'll teach you how" "The one mistake people who can't get more likes make"

Titles like that appeared on my timeline.

Before I even read them, I felt nauseous.

Why did I feel nauseous?

At first, I didn't even know myself. It was just a visceral, physiological aversion.

I thought about it and realized why.

Articles like that first plant seeds of anxiety by saying, "Your likes are low" or "Your views aren't growing." Then, they use that anxiety as fuel to lure you into their own articles.

They make you think, "You are lacking." Once they've made you think that, they beckon you, saying, "The solution is over here."

They use people's anxiety as fuel for mobilization. That is probably why I felt nauseous.

Is an article with few likes a bad article?

Here, I want to ask clearly.

Is an article with few likes a bad article? Is an article with few views a worthless article?

No. Absolutely not.

The number of likes only counts "how many fingers touched" the article. The number of views only counts how many people walked past it.

Neither of them measures a single thing about what happened in the heart of someone who read that article.

Behind a single like, someone might be crying. But the numbers only call that a "1".

Numbers are too crude as a measuring stick.

On social media and note, likes and view counts have somehow become "evaluations."

But that is just entrusting your evaluation to the "quantity of reactions" from others. And using the crudest measuring stick at that.

Numbers can only measure quantity. They cannot measure substance.

Even if you can count how many people it reached, you cannot count who it reached or what it touched within them. Numbers have never been able to measure the most important part of value from the very beginning.

Because people mistake that for 'evaluation,' they become anxious. They are swayed by numbers that pretend to measure what cannot be measured.

I only place value on honesty.

I believe that honesty is what truly has value.

Even if it is read by only one person, if it is honest, it has value. Even if it is read by a million people, if it is a lie meant to incite anxiety, it has no value.

This is because the value of honesty, in both cases, happens outside of numbers.

First, when you write honestly, you can see yourself. The outline of yourself, which is usually blurry, becomes visible for just a moment when you put it into words. This is a value that occurs even if no one reads it. I can see my own outline by writing things down.

Second, that honesty reaches someone who is carrying the same thing. Something moves within that one person. This, too, is a value that might be happening even if no 'like' button is pressed.

Neither of these is reflected in numbers at all.

So, you don't need to be anxious.

Few likes. Low views.

That does not mean your words have no value. It just means that the crudest of rulers cannot measure your worth.

It simply cannot measure what cannot be measured.

You don't have to surrender your heart to articles that use numbers as a flag to make you feel anxious.

Your honesty has already become valuable in a place that numbers cannot count.

———

Even if what you wrote didn't move anyone's heart, if you were able to see yourself a little better by writing it, then that line is already not in vain.