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If I haven't miscounted, it's been 29 days crazy days since my Steemit account was approved and I made my first post. I'm writing a 30th day post to share with you all tomorrow, so keep hitting F5 on this browser window until you see it! But since that afternoon 29 days ago I've spent likely too much time learning the vocabulary and intricacies of this little corner of the internet. I've had a nice time, and virtually met some cool and smart people who I hope to learn from and be inspired by in the future. However, there's a part of this steemy blockchainy cryptoish platform that bugs me.
Steemit is all about the money!
"I give you upvote so you give me upvote. This is a a great story and great read. Thanks for reading this great post. Nice job! I give you positive comment so you follow and upvote. Here is 0.001 Steem. Now give upvote to my top content. Nice post! Upvote for Upvote."
I'm a photographer for Pete's sake. I didn't come on to this platform to trade $0.01 upvotes and comments on garbage content where you swiped a low resolution photo off of CNN.com and go on to paraphrase some annoying crypto prediction. I've been posting quality photography (or at least an attempt at that) onto my Flickr, Facebook, and Instagram for years. I've done that without the immediate belief that I'd somehow earn some money from my posts. It didn't matter though. I love photography and wanted to share it with whoever would find it inspiring. However, a side effect of working hard on that content and sharing it publicly has landed me an opportunity to have my work represented on Stocksy United, earned me free phones, drones, and outdoor gear, as well as real actual income for employing my talents and sharing high quality, hard earned photographs to people kind enough to follow along.
When I heard about Steemit, I was immediately interested because I saw it as an opportunity to reach new people, and earn a little crypto as a reward for doing what I already love. I don't see it as a get rich quick scheme any more than I see posting photos on Instagram as a get rich quick scheme, which for me might end up being more of a reality than Steemit ever will. I'm pretty careful about who I follow on here, so thankfully my feed has stayed fairly authentic. However it only takes five minutes to dredge up posts where the little planktons, minnows, and dolphins are squeezing their way into line to drop a mostly meaningless comment on a post full of low quality content because they see a little (65) after the username of the poster. I guess you could say there is this mentality on other social networks, and there definitely is a deluge of low quality content out there, but this platform seems especially full of desperation and unashamed asking for attention.
I wish people would have the mentality that posting great content and meaningfully interacting with others can actually net you some pretty cool opportunities. Sure there are opportunities for rewards on this platform, but if people would understand what it takes to earn them on here, they'd have probably already figured out a way to earn them on other platforms as well.
But who knows, I'm the noobie here so I could be totally wrong. I did just get approved to buy votes on Smartsteem so maybe it's time to start gaming the system. You tell me!
I promise my 30th day on Steemit post will be a little more positive, and include a few shout outs to some great folks on here. I just felt I had to get this one out of the way before then. Thanks for reading!