After two years of being active on Steem it's without a doubt that Steem has significantly impacted my life. Hundreds of posts, thousands of comments and tens of thousands of upvotes later, the time involved has definitely been noticed by those around me. Steem based activities are now my number one hobby. Steem has impacted my social life in a positive way.
I treat Steem like any hobby, spending a few hours here and there for pleasure and to build my skills. After a while, I started spending a little money on it, as not only does having more Steem provide a boost to one's reputation, it is also a better investment than most hobbies. Steem for some people has been a way to make money, as for me I don't see it this way. Selling your Steem is selling your influence, the idea here is to increase my influence. I am not recommending that anyone invests in Steem, the intention here is not to provide financial advice.
Steem is a fantastic way of documenting my cat's life and some of my own experiences. I can organize photos and permanently store them on the blockchain. Steem gives me control and not some third party like Facebook which I deleted a couple of years before starting on Steem. Steem brought me back to Social Media.
ReggaeSteem has had a Larger Impact than Steem on Me
Steem history was made on my recent trip to Jamaica. I met a few Steemians face-to-face, made some actual friends and helped sell Steem in a way few people here have. 
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Best of luck in your Steem journies!