It’s official! After creating 201 posts over the past 18 months, my blog has reached a new level of readership that defies credulity.

Two days ago, I posted Chapter 8 of “Uncertainty”, a somber reflection of survival based on a true story during the Holocaust (which I encourage everyone to read from the prologue going forward). I was feeling rather secure about the characters, the writing technique, and the progression of the story that I’ve been serializing for the past month, and looking forward to plotting out the balance of Part One.

However, today I checked the current status to see how well (or not) the post has been received, and to my dismay, I’ve discovered that the views for Uncertainty: Chapter Eight have been less than flattering.

In fact, the post was credited with -2,147,483,648 views to date…maybe an all-time record for poorest performance ever for a new post by anyone affiliated with WordPress!

For a moment, I didn’t know what to think. And then a flood of emotions took over. I began to doubt whether the writing I was producing had offended or alienated readers to the point where 2,147,483,648 readers were letting me know that they had “unseen” my post!

While I will admit that my 201 musings to date are not intended for everyone (and most likely an acquired taste at best), I was not prepared to accept that almost half the literate world wished to “unview” my blog.

Here are the facts. According to Stastista (a statistics portal combining statistics and studies from more than 22,500 sources), in a world of approximately 7.6 billion people, about 26% of our global population is below 15 years of age.

That’s equivalent to 5.624 billion people worldwide over 15 years-old, and our new baseline for purposes of this investigation.

Coupled with UNESCO’s declaration of global literacy rate of 86%–which amounts to 4.837 billion adults (aged 15 years and older) who are validated as being able to read and write–

…I have reconciled that I’ve lost any chance of attracting 44.4% of the literate world to my website.

Of course, I’m completely dependent upon WordPress for the accuracy of their calculus. But if their numbers are on target, then I must consider the other 55.6% of literate adults on this planet and appeal to their inherent curiosity, so that one day they might consider the possibility of visiting my blog and checking out the archives or what’s new.

In the meantime, I will continue to write for my audience of one, or two, or however many others (1980 followers and counting) who support me, and not focus on the negative 2,147,483,648 who don’t know what they’re missing…until they come around.

To my loyal readers, stay tuned for Uncertainty: Chapter Nine.