Steem has a lot of problems. We all know that. But how far are we from creating real interactions?
From here (note that I don’t have an account on that website, it just has a lot of anti-steem posts).
From a human perspective, liking and up-voting become a chore, and it felt less like engaging and more of how I could ensure profits go into my pockets for the forced mechanism on me to press a button and “earn” through transacting with the person or post.
It dulled my sense of value and heightened my desire to click faster and hate when I had to wait based on time delay. Why? Because now, time had a monetary function associated with my engagement.
This turned my engagement with people into “transacting” with people. And now, if I transact faster, I can earn faster through (assumed) reciprocal up-voting. Now I don’t take the time to think. To respond with care. To actually care.
I don’t like transacting with people. I can do that when I buy groceries. I want to engage with people. I want to spur ideas and encourage creativity. In all people.
This statement is very true. By attaching money to commenting and posting, it creates a system where engaging can become a chore, only being done for followers and upvotes. I did something similar to this as I forced myself to comment on 40 posts per week by different people, in the hopes that my follower count would grow.
While “upvote for upvote” is now frowned upon and no longer paid attention to, the remnants of it still remain. Currently, engagement has become a chore, a job, for many people, as interactions become transactions.
But for others, the Steem experience no longer feels like transacting. For them, upvoting a post is not done to try and get that person as a follower for themselves, it is done as a normal engagement on the internet. This is something we should all strive to do, as Steemit should not be about transacting, it should be about engaging, fostering discussion and connections.
But for me, and many others, that is what Steem is all about. What we need is more people who are posting content that encourages discussion and engagement. We also need more people who want to engage, even if it doesn’t benefit them in follower count.
If this can happen, we will create an ecosystem where discussion, new ideas, and engagement are rewarded, making Steem stand out and become a truly amazing place.
