My Unreasonable Jealousy

Introduction

Over the past couple of weeks I have been seeing a lot of members of Vocal+Plus Assist getting Top Stories on Vocal, often multiple ones close together. I am over the moon for the people I know and maybe slightly peeved about others who are “Vocal Favourites” who seem to get Top Stories because of who they are but that is probably due to my own personal tastes. We can’t like everything and we don’t have time to read everything.

So Why Do I Get Jealous?

It’s not really jealousy, I do believe that is a hugely destructive emotion, although I have used it in the title of this piece and for this particular section.

The thing is I have had two Top Stories in November, now think about that. There are 700,000 creators on Vocal, not all of them active, but even one story a month as a Top Story must be way above average so I should not feel jealous of anyone. Some of my friends recently got their first Top Story and I am just expecting it to happen for me.

In reality I think that I have failed if I don’t get a Top Story, but I know I have produced something worth reading because of the feedback I get from my friends and audience in the various Facebook Vocal groups that I am a member of.

But it really makes me think of the many stories that I read and am in awe of, thinking I could never write something as good as that, and then see that these are not Top Stories when I think the should be, and then I realise that lots of my friends are not getting Vocal recognition for their work, although Vocal will argue that they are being paid for their story to be read and it is up to them to build their audience.

So How Do I Deal With My Jealousy?

I look at my own successes in my eighteen months on Vocal. I don’t know how many Top STories I have had and that says how privileged I am because I have lost count (I think Vocal should have a Top Story indicator and a read count on our Profile list as the normal Stats are flakey to say the least). I do actually write a hell of a lot on Vocal with an average of fifty posts a month so I maybe should not be surprised that Vocal moderators sometimes notice my articles.

I also take delight in seeing others get Top Stories and always try to congratulate them and share in their happiness, and I do love the praise that I get when I get a Top Story.

Conclusions

Going forward I will still get twinges of jealousy when I don’t get a Top Story and it hurts that I have never appeared on a Vocal Challenge list, but that pales into insignificance when weighed against the love, support and encouragement that I receive in the Facebook Vocal groups and from my friends.

Because of my continual Challenge failure I think I am the only Vocal creator who is not bothered when Challenge results are announced, and for me, that is a good thing.

I am incredibly grateful for the position that I am in. Not everyone can write about anything in any form at any time which I seem to be able to do. I have actually posted at least one post in every Vocal community, I am unaware of anyone else who has done that although some would say my posts must have not been very good, but they all have had a decent response.

I will finish with my poem about my favourite Facebook Vocal Groups.

Have a good day and do not let jealousy get the better of you. I included "Jealousy" by Todd Rundgren's Utopia as a soundtrack for this.