How to Turn off Highlights on Medium
There is a way, though you may not like it
Ever try to read an article on Medium you are genuinely interested in, but it looks like a fluorescent marker orgy from a used textbook? Perhaps it is as annoying to you as it is to me.
I’m used to reading on a Kindle with the ability to turn off popular highlights. After spending an hour scouring the internet for such a feature on Medium, my hopes soared when I found a Google Chrome extension that looked promising. But alas, the extension hadn’t been updated in years and it failed to live up to its promise.
My search also led me to an article in the Medium help center on removing highlights. It seemed promising until I read that it was only about removing your own highlights. However, I discovered something interesting near the bottom: Passages you highlight are visible to your followers.
For articles which have an annoying amount of highlighting, I’ve discovered most of the highlights come from one person. It’s as if they had a surge of euphoria reading the article that resonated deeply with their soul while fearing they would never remember what they gleaned from…