Before reading this essay, I was immediately intrigued by the title, “Consider the Lobster”. Unsure of its context, I was honestly shocked that the essay was indeed about lobsters. I thought it would have been some metaphorical story about humans, but no, it was about actual lobsters. As someone who has never heard of or attended the Maine Lobster Festival, it was interesting to learn about how insane it actually is. He’s writing this piece for a “gourmet” food magazine, which is understandable since lobster is seen as a more luxurious seafood. Wallace’s writing is very effective in describing all the elements of the festival, making it easy to visualize and understand how he was feeling while in attendance. I also found his footnotes very entertaining and informative to the entirety of the essay. It allowed Wallace to almost have side conversations with the reader, getting more of his personal flare. While Wallace did give a thorough and genuine description of the Maine Lobster Festival, I did not expect the topic to shift into the ethics of eating lobsters. It was really smart of him to engage the reader with the opening section, to then be able to address the importance of his essay. As someone who was fascinated by the lobster tanks at the supermarket or Red Lobster itself, it makes me sad how the whole cooking process occurs. While I’m not a vegetarian myself, I was still uncomfortable hearing Wallace describe the treatment of lobsters before being eaten. A quote from the section about boiling the lobsters really stuck in my head in saying, “The lobster will sometimes try to cling to the container’s sides or even to hook it’s claws over the kettle’s rim like a person trying to keep from going over the edge of a roof… Even if you cover the kettle and turn away, you can usually hear the cover rattling and clanking as the lobster tries to push it off.” Not only is that very graphic, but it really makes you consider the lobster in this situation and think about your own personal feelings towards animal treatment and moral ethics in general.

Unlike a random personality quiz, Buzzfeed’s site features “Inside the Playlist Factory” written by Reggie Ugwu in 2016. This essay dives deeper into the unseen work done at streaming service headquarters. Streaming services have taken the music industry by storm and have allowed so many people to access music more freely. The most popular component of these services is the plethora of playlists they offer. You can find a playlist for practically anything, similar to random greeting cards. However, people do not realize it takes a special type of person to curate playlists that appeal to the millions of users. They analyze listening patterns, activity, time of day, or really anything to better understand what playlists people will enjoy listening to and discover more music. The topic of this essay is what makes it interesting in itself. Not many people take into consideration the mechanics of the music they’re listening to, especially when it’s available at the touch of a button. This essay is unique in how it tells numerous creators personal stories, all tying back to the main theme. The author also makes numerous references to songs, artists, and main stream topics to keep the readers engaged in the content. In addition, he has links to outside sources by imbedding them within his writing, taking the reader into discovering the topic further. The content of this essay is so relevant because who doesn’t love music, especially in this digital age. The ending of the essay really stuck with me. The final quote, “Instead of reacting to what’s happening, I have a hand in shaping what’s happening.”, really speaks to the society we live in. We are constantly being shaped and influenced by our media and sometimes it’s subconsciously…just like the people behind playlists.

In Elizabeth Royte’s descriptive essay entitled, “The Remains of the Night”, she recounts her experience cleaning up sex garbage from a park. The content itself I found interesting, and definitely would have read it regardless of the platform she used. That being said, I do think Medium allowed her to implement more graphical elements and organize her points around them. The real photos of the trash found and discovered provides proof of her discoveries and the multitude of content in this specific area, the Midwood. The various statistics that were highlighted at various points definitely had a greater impact, rather than being woven throughout her essay. I personally found one of the statistics about unique sexual behaviors intriguing. As a gay man myself, I would not have considered kissing a “unique experience”. Reading that statement made me think a bit more about the society we live in and how it is still not widely accepted to be a part of the LGBTQ+ community, as well as internalized homophobia within people of said community. Going back to her images, one of them in particular caught my eye. The photo including the magazine on the ground with used condoms over top. The prominent word on the magazine is “Jesus”, which got me thinking as to why gay men would be looking at religious material. Or are they purposefully disposing of their items to make a statement about religion and homosexuality?

Overall, Royte used the perks of Medium to her advantage. In this digital age, not many people enjoy sitting down and reading paragraph after paragraph. That being said, Royte was able to implement all these graphic elements to not only assist in creating a visual, but also making the content more interesting to read about. Having a platform like Medium to expand your essay further and engage your audience outside of the words is definitely something beneficial.