The latest interruption in Steemit service, the day before yesterday, got me thinking about the connections and friendships formed on the platform. Who are you still in contact with, even when Steemit is down. Without the daily reminder of someones post on your feed, or comments coming your way, who are you in contact with outside of Steemit?

We could always take this thinking further and imagine if Steemit.chat and Discort would both disappear, and even scarier, what if the whole internet dies!? It’s something to think about, but I won't go that far today.

I consider Steemit very superficial

I think of Steemit as a superficial level of contact, just the initial "hey, nice to meet you!" For me at least, it’s really important to form connections beyond just that, and I’m sure I’m not the only one that feels this way. There is often a thin layer or filter when you chat with someone on the comment section, and you need the privacy of a one-on-one chat to get to know someone more. A lot of people turn to Steemit.chat and Discort for the next step in getting to know someone from Steemit on a more personal, and private level.

In real life

Once you get to chatting with someone more, at some point, if the distance isn’t too long, or starts line up, we want to meet other Steemians in real life too. Last year’s Steemfest was of course a great way to get to know a lot of Steemians in real life, but I have gotten to know many Steemians after that, in smaller gatherings. The next Steemfest is also approaching fast and I get to meet more awesome Steemians I have already been in contact with on the platform and in chats.

Another reason I wanted to talk about this subjects is that today I met up with a fellow Finnish Steemian @celestal, who I already got to know in our little Danger Zone meetup in Tallinn. He is on a bicycle tour and happened to stop by in my city and our schedules lined up perfectly so we had a few good hours of talking and devouring a Chinese food buffet. Well, Celestal did most of the devouring, the boy can sure eat!! I don’t know where all the food physically went, because he is not much bigger than I am! Make sure to check him out if you haven’t already, a boy much wiser beyond his years.

I am so grateful for Steemit in terms of bringing me to people that I can start forming real friendships with, much more than just the superficial I read your blog, you read mine and sometimes we leave comments to each other.

There are a lot of people I am in regular contact with, beyond Steemit, but haven’t had the change to meet yet, I’m looking forward to the future to see how many more Steemians I will be able to meet.

_{Picture by @rubencress, my ass is on the right, @escapist on left and @greddyforce in the middle}