What are the reasons one is joining a social media blockchain like Hive?
If we are honest, the main aspect when signing up first is earning some tokens, before thinking about the social aspect.
But that is not a bad thing per se, to be motivated by the promise to earn something and to be the true owner of your content.
It is just a natural reaction to an offer that is made, we give it a try in hope to benefit from it.
But there are some things to consider.
When being new in this ecosystem you can easily fall into the trap of envy.
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You start exploring and creating and you may see no results, engagement or praise for your efforts.
You see others that get or have what you want for yourself.
You don't understand the bot system, the voting system period, you just see the numbers, the upvotes and amounts of tokens handed out.
You may see others engage with each other but you feel left out.
You start taking it personal.
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Most of us live in a materialistic society, shaped by the market economy.
We already take on the competition with being born, and in later life stages the competitive behavior changes from one necessary for survival to one being a truly human feature, envy.
How is envy characterized and can be distinguished from jealousy?
Envy was characterized by feelings of inferiority, longing, resentment, and disapproval of the emotion. Jealousy was characterized by fear of loss, distrust, anxiety, and anger.
Source
In other words, anyone who feels envious makes comparisons and interprets the results as a grievance. It is about self-esteem, role and social rank.
First we start comparing what we have with what we want.
(i.g. I have no tokens, but I want some)
Then we compare what we have with what others have.
(i.g. I have only a low reputation and others have higher one.)
It is a tricky thing .
But we have to be careful not to mistaken envy with only a bad thing and there is also the distinction to make between envy and covet.
A distinction also must be made between enviousness and covetousness. We may envy another person when they possess a good that we covet. Coveting is wishing to have what the other has, while envy is the ill will we feel toward its possessor. That is, coveting is directed at the object and envy is directed toward the person. But coveting is not the same as consumer desire (Belk et al. 2003). Coveting is rather the wish for a particular good that is in the possession of a particular other person.
Belk, Russell. (2011). Benign envy. AMS Review. 1. 117-134. 10.1007/s13162-011-0018-x.
There is envy and there is benign-envy.
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While envy is personal and often malicious towards other people
In the traditional view shared by most of the social sciences as well as philosophy, neuroscience, and psychoanalysis,envy is malicious ill will directed toward a referent other who possesses something of importance to us that we covet.
Belk, Russell. (2011). Benign envy. AMS Review. 1. 117-134. 10.1007/s13162-011-0018-x.
and triggered by desires that could translate to upvotes and engagement within Hive
Status symbols are likely to be expensive, rare, and visible. The scarcity and assumption of limited good means that someone else’s gain is our loss.
Within organizational behavior the social comparisons and relative positions of greatest interest involve income and promotions
Belk, Russell. (2011). Benign envy. AMS Review. 1. 117-134. 10.1007/s13162-011-0018-x.
benign envy can be described in a different way.
Rather than being motivated by a desire to cause the other to lose their coveted possessions, benign envy inspires the envier to purchase the equivalent of this same possession
Benign envy is a characterization suggested by several others (e.g., Smith and Kim 2007; D’Arms and Kerr 2008) who distinguish it from “envy proper” because it lacks a sufficiently malicious nature.
Belk, Russell. (2011). Benign envy. AMS Review. 1. 117-134. 10.1007/s13162-011-0018-x.
Adam Smith refers to it as positive envy in "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" (1759).
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It could be translated to trying to achieve the same reputation and upvotes as others within Hive by creating good content and engaging in a friendly, constructive way.
But as always the devil is in the details.
Unlike early conceptions of malicious envy and its associated covetousness, benign envy and its desire are directed toward consumption models and replicable branded goods. This is possible because both the goods and most other people with whom we have contact are anonymous. These others do not know the rest of our life beyond what they see in our visible consumption.
Belk, Russell. (2011). Benign envy. AMS Review. 1. 117-134. 10.1007/s13162-011-0018-x.
We tend to want to level up to those who own what we admire, rather than to wish them failure in their efforts to maintain their goods, in our case tokens.
We see what a rather anonymous account is making and we want to achieve the same.
Feelings of envy might creep up but we also admire their status. We want to reach it as well and therefor we don't feel hate towards them personally rather than the want to have the same.
The concept of benign envy seems to be a modern one, also used by the marketing industry to make us believe we need more and always that what others have.
While it is the milder form of enviousness it still belongs to it.
We have to be aware of not loosing ourselves in the desire to reach the same status, level as others.
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If you lose sight of yourself, you cannot pay attention to your own values.
Those who feel ignored look out for what might get them noticed.
They pay special attention to attributes by looking at the others, thinking that they need exactly these attributes in order to be worthy of attention themselves.
We run into low self- esteem by comparing us with others.
Without fragile self-esteem, there is no envy.
Since self-esteem can be influenced by comparisons, envy is therefore not only felt, it is also stoked.
By massive upvotes for example. Or nepotism within a community.
I was born in a system like that and maybe I am more vigilant about it, but I also know what it leads to.
Sure, envy and even benign envy is making us more creative and willing to thrive, it is the dose that makes the poison, but do we need it as an engine to move forward, to reach what others have?
Even without envy, life would not stand still!
Without it we would feel more pleasure in creating and be freed from the fear of not being enough.
What helps in overcoming envy is paying attention to oneself and refraining from making comparisons to others.
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As always I am not an exception towards feeling envy.
It comes natural but you have to acknowledge it and then let go of it.
Of course we all tend to think the grass is always greener on the other side.
I envied people and have been envied by people.
Was it worth the stress and pain? Most of the times not. Did it get me to where I wanted to be? Most of the times not.
Keep track of your envy until it becomes a distant object.
Make it a boring thing to you, one that is only a reminder for your personal development but nothing you have to stick with.
Stop comparing yourself with others to gain self worth, it will only lead to less self-esteem.
We don't live the lives of others and only because we think they might have more, or something better, we still don't know if they actually have.
Often the ones that get envied are poor people in other parts of their lives. They lack social competence or are sad people inside with issues like we all have.
I've been with famous people who many envy.
I have seen that what we envy them for is often nothing but a nice appearance.
It's more illusion than reality.
And reality often has many downsides to those that are envied.
Be yourself in this ecosystem, learn from others, speak out and then let go. Envy is just to learn from but not a way of living.
©bulldog-joy