Elizabeth Royte takes advantage of the Medium platform to make a more effective essay in that she knows that she will have a niche audience reading about her topic (people interested in consumption, waste, sex, and/or environmental issues) and she can also utlize pictures to supplement her writing and bring readers along with her journey—not just in words, but visually. Medium is also for people to write about anything they want, opposed to writing for a big publishing company like New York Times that would only want to hear about the environmental implications that waste-dumping in parks causes and perhaps about the moral values having sex in public infringes upon when a) it’s a public place, and b) children are around. Royte can make it her essay and not an essay written for a specific audience (though a specific audience might be reading this article).
Furthermore, the Medium platform allows for creativity and the feeling of being on a journey of discovery. Opposed to starting from beginning, middle, and end of Royte’s journey being interested in cleaning up waste, Royte jumps around. She starts with her days of running in the park and she ends with running in the park with her daughter, but in the middle she writes about being part of a litter mob, then contextualizes how she joined the group, while also throwing in some memories, conversations, and remembrances such as writing about a magazine story she wrote years prior and connects it to present day. She also uses dialogue to make the reader feel like it’s a story, a narrative. She writes about the conversation between her, Marie, and Stephanie, as well as a conversation between her and a man sitting on a log in the park while she cleans around his feet. This connects readers to the essay more and brings it to life, so to speak.
Also, this platform allows Royte to ask questions throughout the piece that reflect how her journey has made her think about her chosen topic. For example, Royte asks herself, “What did that make me, then? A half-assed voyeur, a passive collector of data only partially understood.” She finds her own place within this narrative of waste, consumption, and sex, which allows her to think further about who she is. She comes to realizations about herself and why garbage is so important to her: “For me, garbage is more of a medium, a portal into other people’s lives: what they consume and discard, of course, but also how they interpret disposal laws and customs, and how they relate to the wider world.” By showing readers her thought process about garbage throughout the essay, Royte is able to show readers her perspective and for me, I did understand what she was saying here about how people’s garbage reflects something about the individual or society. You won’t see me picking up nasty trash or used condoms anywhere, but to each their own. Also, she writes, “I was, by now, wondering if our interest in these objects revealed more about us than they revealed about their users. Certainly these artifacts, and the scenarios they brought to mind, kindled in me no sexual excitement.” This platform allows Royte a certain fluidity within her thoughts, in that she can ponder, come to conclusions, and then ponder again, which makes for an interesting read, and an effective essay.
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