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OH VOCAL

What Nonsense

By Tetrenius CobaltPublished 2 years ago 4 min read
1
Shhhhh...

I don't know how I found Vocal as a platform. I had just taken down my website and was looking for another place to write freely, and just stumbled upon it one day. I’ve always loved to write because writing to me is a joy, and yes everyone can create a passage by writing, but not everyone can write. Writing well is not just about putting pen and paper or fingers to keyboard. The author, whether it be a story about himself /herself, an object should be taking the reader on a journey. That's what separates the good from the great, or so I thought. Back when I was still in high school I seen the switch turn on. Suddenly the kids who were all writing the same things got praised. It was about the creation itself not the creativity behind it, and by no means am I battering anyone’s stories from the past, but we have words for a reason and their “creativity” was generic. It’s called a feel good story and it forms a box around writing that’s not supposed to be there.

Every once in awhile we all need feel good stories because even though we ourselves are losing it’s nice to watch good things happen to good people. I would consider myself a good person and I’m sure you do too, but we know that that's not going to help us win anything. Being a good person doesn’t pay the bills, it doesn’t put food on the table, and honestly won’t even make a significant other happy, or stay around for that matter. Feeling good doesn’t do anything but make those tasks easier to perform. Going to work to put food on the table is easier when we feel good, but the problem is how many days out of the year do we feel good? There are below average problems like our favorite football team losing, and a friend that has to cancel plans last minute. There are average problems like credit card debt and missing a couple of homework assignments. There are above average problems like not being able to pay rent and having a spouse cheat, and then there are black holes. Problems so overwhelmingly tasking that it sucks our very essence out of us like a family death or a divorce. The million dollar question is how many of those things are happening to any of us at any given time simultaneously?

Personally I have at least two dread tiers going on at least weekly. We can assume the perfect life doesn’t exist, and I’m not alone in my problems meaning everyone has at least 1 bad thing going on unfortunately. The simple point is we all have a lot more in common with each other than we realize, but it’s not the good things, it’s the bad ones! The bad things are the reason we have certain friend groups; we like people who can bond with us on a level beneath the surface. However, we’ve been duped into only showing people our pieces of greatness. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook are all about promoting feeling good, and doesn’t it feel good scrolling for hours looking at people do what we can’t, or haven’t done in a while, but it’s not consistent, it’s not real. The majority of us have to work to much for to little, fight for 2 weeks of vacation for the year, spend no time with our families, and still have nothing of significance to show for it.

Now that’s the beauty of life! We all have flaws, but instead of acting like they’re not there we embrace them together. That being said Vocal has blindly become another promoter of the “Life is great” movement. I’ve read some pretty spectacular prompts and stories on Vocal that had nothing to do with feeling good, but they never make the featured page. Anything that has to do with realism within the world is hidden to readers. On top of that the community guidelines are rigid and allow less creative things to be published. If the website is for writers to express themselves “freely” then why have any rules? First creators are paying to use the site which, would usually mean freedom to write anything. “What if they’re posting criminal activity or abrasive content?” That has nothing to with Vocal as a company, they aren’t condoning the activity, and in fact could create a system where these types of individuals get suspended or banned, but that’s not the case and I feel that everyone who pays the fee should have an unchained voice.

No religion, no sex, no advising people what to do if the activity is illicit, last time I checked people are going to do whatever they want regardless of what anyone writes. It’s as if were having the “Do video games make kids more violent conversation.” Also I am in no way saying Vocal is terrible. The platform has served its purpose well, but without tweaking some things there will always be artist discrimination. Not everyone wants to read/write about sunshine, rainbows, and the new TV show they recently watched, at least not all the time. Maybe if I write some quick feel good stories I’ll get some recognition too… maybe I need to just submit to the box, and write stories on how cute animals are and how Squid Game should be nominated best show of the year. As always I’m just giving my humble opinion for the next Vocal survey; don’t take everything so seriously.

fact or fiction
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About the Creator

Tetrenius Cobalt

If you want to read something that's going to make you feel something more than happiness welcome home; everything I write comes from the well within and inspires thoughts and emotions once abandoned. Everything you've thought I will say.

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