Years ago I was a proud user of the early Myspace. I learnt some HTML code (which i've now forgotten) just to have a slick looking profile with songs and videos. Background pictures in sections that I could change when I felt like it. I even done a series of “Pointless Bulletins” as it had no character limit. They were very long and had no purpose or point than to attempt to entertain the reader.
Back then I spent hours surfing the internet. Going where I wanted to and finding things through affiliation and talking to friends.
Then came Facebook. Despite being signed up early on I wasn’t impressed with its limit on personality. Everyone’s profile on view looked the same. Individuality seemed lost with the move. I stayed on myspace for longer than was probably best as i hated facebook.
Eventually I gave in and made the switched but my activity was very rare (I also had twitter but found after so many follows it was just a jumble). Enter the smart phone and mobile device revolution. Suddenly you didn’t need a PC or laptop to use these platforms. It was all conveniently in your pocket. Once I had a phone that could keep up and not freeze my activity spiked. However with Facebook I became a scroller. Rarely commented or posted my own things. And even when I started to post more things, I found very little interest in my content.
Over time it has become clear that people didn’t see or read what I wrote either due to my lack of interaction and the facebook algorithm system. This system decides what you see. You have a small amount of control over it. But the real power in these algorithms lay with advertisement companies and people with money who want to promote content (such as political targeting).
It has become somewhat of a propaganda machine where people are happy to be force feed information that facebook decides we want. Rarely do I see real human posts from friends. Group pages fill my feed and I constantly have to adjust my notification settings to not constantly hound me about stuff i’m not interested in but may have looked at or clicked on my accident.
Now i’m here on steemit. Not only can I do the same scrolling and “liking” on posts. This place promotes real genuine content aimed at sharing life stories and interests. Not just advertisements and political ideas or the dread “meal pics” #Whogivesafuck!
I feel people actually care to look at my posts here and for the effort one puts in, its rewarded by a growing vibrant community. I also have to look for what I want to see which I love. It promotes self education and how to search. Something I feel has been lost on FB.
I plan to post here over facebook for the future. However much to my own frustration I can not simply cut myself off from facebook. I haven’t been able to convert people to the best social media platform/blockchain in existence. I’m sure if i shared the fact you get payed people would be more interested but in some cases they either don’t believe me or tell me it must be a scam.
The only concern though I really have in the future is that if Steemit reaches the heights that we all hope that the meal pics and skanky nightclub pictures will arrive and be upvoted by closed social circles (with the occasional whale involved).
However this is just me sulking as if we want this platform to succeed and reach the heights of awesomeness then these people and posts have to come to create a equal, fair and diverse community.
Hopefully by that point enough of us will be closer to whale status and can stop the advertisement, meal pic, skank drop posts from taking over and keep them inline and balanced with the other subjects.
So yeah point of all this is that facebook is a closed off echo chamber of crap thanks to its targeted algorithm system. So many people connected yet so much content is directed.
Steemit is more open and to me provides more freedom for ideas. Yet the former is ironically the big dog.
But ultimately it doesn’t matter. Those who choose to use steemit will understand what I mean and get the benefit of it. Pure facebook users are just going to miss out in the end and hold on to the illusion that its the best place to be. You know whilst all their data is collected and sold to the highest bidder, then selected for targeted ads or political propaganda.
Be Happy, Be Free and Steem On!
Skiveuss
(All views and opinions expressed are my own. And yes I am pretty illiterate)
