What is Steemit?
That question led me to ask what is Facebook, because some people describe steemit as social media you get paid for. But it is far more than that, just like Facebook is far more than social media you DON'T get paid for!
Steemit is different things for different people.
When I first discovered steemit in August 2016, I was told it was a social media website that you got paid to post on. So I wrote a piece about drugs, posted it and waited for the money to roll in!
Surprise surprise - not a cent! So a few months ago, I put out a message on Facebook for some help with steemit. And a long time follower of my content on Youtube contacted me. He had moved to Bali and made big changes to his life which he partly put down to the influences the videos had on him.
And then I started to post and a couple of posts got as much as $50 and $80 which is far more than I ever got from Youtube and with no advertising!
However, I started to learn that it was far more than a platform that paid people to post and share.
So far, I prefer to look at it as a game. A virtual reality game that is run on blockchain technology which means that it is decentralised, run by consensus and nobody can censor things. (There is however a process of 'down voting' content which is aimed at dealing with all sorts of unwanted content) Like any game, in order to play well, one needs to learn the rules.
What I like about the metaphor of a game is that it fits well with my understanding of offline life. As Tom Campbell explains (if you haven't come across him yet, please look him up. He is hailed by some as the Einstein of our times.) the world can be explained elegantly as a virtual reality - a digital information system that has rules - but nevertheless a kind of game that we play.
According to Tom, the purpose of the game is to reduce entropy, i.e to reduce chaos and increase love.
And that is exactly what my experience of the game steemit is doing - it has created a community feel whereby everyone playing the game worldwide (400k currently) wants it to work and people support each other for the greater good.
So its an ALTERNATIVE game to the game we are playing here with its own virtual currency (cryptocurrency) and its own economic, political and legal system so to speak.
In the steemit game, you can choose to play one or more roles. You can be a content creator, a content curator, an investor, a witness (these people make some decisions as to how the platform develops and are voted in and out) and/or a developer or any combination of the above.
I have chosen so far to be a content creator, a curator and an investor. It's a lot of fun and as I said earlier, it feels good to play the game. When I post or read/watch other peoples posts, it feels very connecting as opposed to Facebook where it feels wrong in some ways, at least to me. It feels like Facebook and Youtube are my adversaries rather than my friends.
I have 'earned' a couple of hundred STEEM (the cryptocurrency of steemit) which is the equivalent of a couple of hundred US dollars which can be cashed out via Bitcoin.
I have also met up with someone from the steemit community and we did some promotion of steemit together which is interesting since we don't 'own' the company but we both benefit from its adoption and success.
I think it has the potential to be the new Facebook.
Although I think it would be interesting and useful for many, especially those who spend a lot of time on Facebook, twitter and YouTube, I don't think advice is good practise and would not advise anyone to join. Instead I would encourage you to decide for yourself if this is for you.
Benefits of Steemit
I get paid a lot more than I get from youTube
My viewers don't have to watch adverts
My content can't be censored
It's a game designed by people who have our freedom in mind.
I get to help others, many of whom could be in countries where just a few dollars can make a huge difference to their lives.
I am involved in a platform that rewards great content provision by its providers
As an investor (relatively small one) I love the fact that I can actually effect the life of people all around the world by upvoting their content.
SKEPTICISM
I attempt to remain healthily and openly skeptical about everything including this game. Even though I am being rather evangelical about it at the moment, my concerns about it are as follows.
It is rather addictive and time consuming. I don't want it to become yet another form of slavery. Therefore if you don't spend much time online, maybe its not the right thing for you.
Everything is open on Steemit and can never be deleted. That means no censoring but it also means having to be very conscious of what I am putting out there.
As Neale Donald Walsch - author of Conversations With God says, in a reality that is made of of enlightened beings, competition, scarcity and ownership don't exist, because everyone KNOWS that they are connected t everything and everyone else. Steemit has not gone that far but maybe one day it will.