When I started building Jottings, one of the first design decisions was removing follower counts entirely. No badges, no vanity metrics, no public leaderboards. Just writers and readers.

This wasn't a minimalism flex or a contrarian take for the sake of it. It came from watching—over years of building social products—how follower counts warp everything they touch. They turn writing into performance anxiety. They transform genuine human connection into a numbers game. And they make creators chase metrics instead of meaning.

I want to explain why we made this choice, because it's fundamental to what Jottings is trying to be.

The Psychology is Real

Follower counts are visual anxiety machines. Even when you intellectually know that metrics don't matter, there's something in your brain that registers those numbers. They trigger comparison. They create a scoreboard mentality where 50 followers feels like failure and 5,000 feels like success—regardless of whether those readers are actually interested in what you write.

I've seen genuinely talented writers abandon projects because the follower count wasn't growing fast enough. Meanwhile, mediocre content farms with massive followings appear "successful" by the numbers. The metric becomes detached from reality.

The worst part? You start writing for the number, not for the reader. You optimize for what you think will get engagement instead of what you actually want to say. You write what the algorithm rewards rather than what matters to you. Your authentic voice gets buried under attempts to game a system that's designed to be gamed.

The Comparison Trap

Social media's most insidious feature is its ability to make you feel inadequate at scale.

When follower counts are visible, every creator becomes a reference point. Why does that person have more followers? What am I doing wrong? Should I change my approach? The constant comparison creates a treadmill effect where you're always chasing, never satisfied, because there's always someone ahead.

This isn't healthy for creators. It's not healthy for communities. And frankly, it's not good for the actual content.

Remove the visible numbers, though, and something shifts. You stop measuring yourself against others. You start asking different questions: "Did I say what I meant to say?" "Is this authentic to who I am?" "Will this resonate with the people who care about this topic?"

These are better questions. They lead to better writing.

The Incentive Problem

Here's the uncomfortable truth: when follower counts are visible and matter, they incentivize behavior that's bad for everyone.

They reward virality over substance. They encourage clickbait, hot takes, and content designed to provoke rather than inform. They make you want to post more frequently, whether you have something worth saying or not. They push creators toward controversy because controversy drives engagement.

Without the public scoreboard, the incentives change. You're writing for readers who've chosen to stick around, not strangers scrolling. You're not trying to maximize a count—you're trying to communicate something meaningful to people who care. That's a much healthier dynamic.

What Actually Matters

Let's be honest about what creators really want: they want to be read. They want their words to reach people who appreciate them. They want to build genuine connection around ideas and creativity.

A follower count doesn't guarantee any of that. You can have thousands of followers and zero real engagement. You can have 50 dedicated readers who genuinely care about everything you write. Which is actually more valuable?

On Jottings, we think the second one matters infinitely more. Quality over quantity. Depth over breadth. Real readers over inflated metrics.

This isn't about pretending audience size doesn't matter. It does. But it matters in a different way. On Jottings, you know people are reading because they chose to visit your site and read your words. You see that through genuine engagement—people who return, who engage with your content, who share your writing with others. These are real signals of real interest.

No vanity to it. No inflation. Just reality.

Writing for Yourself

Here's what I think Jottings is really about: giving writers permission to write for themselves first.

Not "write for yourself and hope an audience finds you." But genuinely, primarily, write because you have something to say. Write to think clearly. Write to capture ideas. Write to create something that matters to you. And if readers come along? That's wonderful. But it's not the point.

This is radical on modern social media. Everywhere else, the metrics are front and center, constantly whispering: "Your value is measured here. This number defines your reach, your influence, your success." It's exhausting.

On Jottings, there's just... writing. Your thoughts. Your ideas. Your voice. Without the scoreboard judging it.

The Pressure You Don't Feel

When I talk to Jottings users, I hear something interesting: many mention the relief of not seeing follower counts. It's not something they came looking for, but once it's gone, they realize how much anxiety it was creating.

One writer told me it was like removing a voice from her head that kept asking, "Is this good enough? Do enough people like this?" Now she just writes. The work feels lighter. More honest. More hers.

That's the design philosophy working exactly as intended.

A Better Way Forward

I don't think Jottings is the future of social media—I think it's one option among many, designed for people who want a particular experience. If you love the gamification of engagement and the motivation of climbing follower counts, there are platforms perfect for that. Go use them.

But if you're tired of the anxiety. If you want to write without constantly measuring yourself against others. If you believe that a smaller group of engaged readers is better than thousands of passive followers. If you just want to write for yourself and see what happens...

Then maybe Jottings is for you.

No pressure. No metrics. Just writing.

Jottings is a microblogging platform focused on authentic, anti-social media writing. Start writing today—no follower counts required.