Member-only story

Mary Lou Heater
3 min readSep 11, 2021

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The Three C’s of Medium: Clap, Curate, and Commiserate

❤👍😊

People of a certain age, ilk, or (unfortunately) experience are familiar with the clap. And if you’ve been around since 1996, probably have heard of the clapper — a device for the lazy, arthritic, or not-quite-legally blind to turn on a light. But, come on, to clap? Put your hands to together to the beat of music, applaud after a rousing speech, or give a standing ovation at the end of Hamilton? So why when I link my story to Facebook (FB) with the message please read, share and clap if you like it (I even add the clap emoji) — all I get are hearts, thumps up and smiley faces. I mean, seriously, the meme is at the left-hand side at the end of a story. My brother didn’t even clap. My sister said she didn’t think of it. So, after a piece recently got accepted to Crow’s Feet (has had about 30 reads) I had to text my go-to person to read it, just to validate I’ve been heard, seen, and valued. To know someone actually liked it and assuaged my ego — she’s my only guaranteed clapper. And alas a clap appeared right away. Sigh. I’ve been reading the entrants in the recent writer’s challenge (I entered three -just in case you want to read, follow, and clap) and have seen like 221 hand claps on one story — I don’t even know 221 people (I think I have 120 friends on FB)! But then a read an essay noting that someone can clap more than once for a story (but not for yourself I found out the hard way, oops). Yes, guilty. As like other newbies to Medium, I’ve been gobbling up tip pieces on expanding my base and getting curated. But curated, really?

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Mary Lou Heater
Mary Lou Heater

Written by Mary Lou Heater

Doctor of Nursing Practice specializing in adult mental heath, aging and addictions. Writer, lover of words, and ideas.

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