I’ve had tweets and Facebook posts go viral. I’ve had a few of my articles go viral on Google.

My main goal is to be read, because I think I have important things to say about LGBTQ equality and progressive values in general.

I don’t want to go viral to feel good. I don’t care about feeling good, because I’m not important to know how I feel doesn’t matter to almost anyone. I want to go viral to be read and have my message get out, because I think my message matters. I think a lot of Americans have terrible moral values and need to be educated. I don’t say I’m necessarily the one to do that, but I think my message matters sometimes.

That said, going viral on Twitter is really unproductive. Most Twitter users who hit the like or retweet button don’t engage with the content. It takes way more Twitter users to get reads than from any other platform.

Facebook is a lot better, but even with Facebook there are plenty of mindless people who just hit the like button and don’t have any idea what they’re liking. Kind of dumb if you ask me.

Google is the gold standard. If you have an article go viral on Google, it means people have probably read it. Articles of mine that have shown up in the Google news feed have been engaged with and read very heavily, more so than on any social media platform.

But again, I value that not because it makes me feel good, but because I hope I can make people think and change how they think.