When I look at my Medium profile with its 28,000 followers, I see a ghost town. Those followers? They’re not really mine. They’re Medium’s. I’ve spent years building this audience, but I can’t truly reach them on my terms.

This hits at a fundamental truth about social media that many creators overlook: we’re all renters, not owners.

Social media platforms offer a compelling deal: they provide the infrastructure, the audience, and the tools. In return, they own the relationship with your followers. At first glance, this seems fair. After all, they’re providing valuable services.

But there’s a catch. When platforms change their algorithms, pivot their business models, or simply fade away, your audience can vanish overnight. Your carefully cultivated following becomes unreachable, trapped behind the platform’s walls.

The real price we pay isn’t measured in dollars. It’s measured in lost opportunities and diminished creative freedom. Every time a platform tweaks its algorithm, creators scramble to adapt their content, their voice, their entire creative process to match the platform’s new preferences. This constant dance of adaptation isn’t just exhausting—it’s creatively stifling.

Platform-provided metrics tell a seductive but incomplete story. A follower count of 28,000 sounds impressive, but what does it mean when you can’t reliably reach even a fraction of those followers? The metrics that truly matter aren’t visible on your profile page. They’re found in the depth of engagement, the quality of connections, and most importantly, the sustainability of your creative practice.

Social platforms master the art of making their services feel essential while gradually increasing their control over your audience. They start with generous organic reach, encourage you to build your following, then steadily dial back your ability to reach that very audience you worked so hard to build. It’s a subtle form of vendor lock-in, masked as a free service.

Looking at my dormant Medium following has taught me something crucial: the size of your audience matters far less than your ability to meaningfully connect with them. True creative freedom comes from building systems you control, voices that don’t depend on algorithmic approval, and connections that exist outside platform ecosystems.

Building an audience on social media feels like constructing a house on rented land. The foundation might be solid, but the landlord can change the rules anytime.