Member-only story
Why I Give 11 Claps on Medium
What Your Clap Count Reveals About You
The Day I Realised My Claps Were Prayers
I started writing on Medium at the beginning of this year, but I’d been reading for much longer. At first, I clapped casually — a few taps here and there, like tossing coins into a fountain without thinking. But then something shifted.
For stories that truly touched me — the ones that lingered in my mind like the last notes of a song — I noticed my fingers tapping the clap button exactly 11 times. Not 10, not 15. Eleven.
I’m not a particularly religious person, but the number felt intentional, almost ritualistic. In many traditions, 11 is auspicious — a bridge between worlds, a master number in numerology, a count that ends with 1, symbolising a cycle completing and restarting. Without realizing it, I’d turned clapping into a tiny act of reverence.
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The Secret Language of Claps
I began paying attention to how others clapped. Some left a single clap (a polite nod). Some maxed out at 50 (a standing ovation). But then I spotted a reader who consistently gave 6 claps. Six. It felt oddly specific — was it arbitrary, or did it mean something to them?
