Why I Am on Steemit: Social Blogging (Part 1 of a Series)

A couple of years ago, I have to admit that I grew disgruntled with mainstream social media — particularly Facebook, which seemed to turn into a toxic snakepit of anger and extremism during the 2016 US Presidential Election campaigns.

I just got very tired of all the angry screaming and squawking and people unfriending each other.

And so, I was quite open to something "new," by the end of 2016.

A New Place to park myself... and my blogging

Meanwhile, as many of you know, I have been a blogger for many years. I have had niche blogs about HSPs, Psychology, Consciousness and Self-Development, Stamp Collecting and various other topics.

I still have some of those.

I never really liked Reddit... it always struck me like a bit of a small feudal system of power-hungry nerds who got to be mini-dictators once they reached the status of "Sub-Redditor." It always felt like saying the right thing to the right person was more important than the actual; content you shared.

But I still liked to write, and to engage in some form of meaningful discussion.

Basically, I Missed the LiveJournal and Xanga Days!

My blogging roots go back to the late 1990's.

I know quite a few of you followed me on long-defunct Xanga, and we were friends there. I also know quite a few of us felt like we "lost" something when Facebook came along and "social blogging" became... old fashioned.

Remember "Social Blogging?"

We wrote about "real issues" and had "real discussions" and it wasn't all just meaningless fluff about nothing, and "Me-too" outrage over everything. Less anger, more authenticity.

I really missed those days.

I get to use all my artsy photos again, in my blog posts!

So I Found this Community Called Steemit...

I'm going to guess quite a few of you have heard of it.

I'm also going to guess quite a few of you have heard a lot of wrong things about it. I won't speculate on that, but you know me well enough to also know that I don't get involved in — let alone recommend — anything sketchy.

Either way, it is where I more or less "disappeared to," in late 2016. It's why my Facebook timeline got a lot quieter and my twitter* feed became much slower. Because this new place reminded me of old-fashioned social blogging; it reminded me of Xanga!

I am writing these words today — after having tested the waters for more than two years — in the hope some of you will feel adventurous enough to check it out.

I can't tell you everything Steemit IS in a short article, but I will be mentioning it, from time to time... and I have added the very basics, below.

This isn't really a "sales pitch," but I think you might enjoy it there, too... particularly if you were one of the "OldXangans."

I still share my photography

What Steemit IS, Briefly...

It's a social content site, with many many flavors.

It's a Community of a million plus, and growing. And it's a truly global community.

Quite a few, like me, are bloggers. We blog about everything from life, to psychology, to art, to homesteading, to politics, to freedom.

But there are many, many options; it's an entire social ecosystem: We have our own video channel — @dtube — which works like YouTube, except nobody's going to demonetize or ban your channel. We have photo apps like @steepshot and we have our own and rapidly growing multiplayer games like @steemmonsters. There's even gambling (in a limited sort of way); food channels, live streaming, place for musicians like @dsound and much more than I can explain.

Sometimes it's social media "shorts" like Facebook. You like posting memes? You can do that. You a fitness nut: We have @actifit, our own fitness tracking app you can put on your phone.

Every few days, something new seems to come along... and most of those new projects and apps are developed by fellow community members!

Sunset ripples and silhouettes

Why You Should CARE:

You might be wondering why you should care, since you are already entrenched in other social media channels. And besides... isn't this some "new fangled flash in the pan?"

Well, it's not new; Steemit has been around since mid-2016. It's also not a "scam" as some might have been lead to believe.

What is a little different from anything you might have been involved with before is twofold (mostly, although there is more!):

Steemit is "decentralized," which is basically a fancy word for "there's no big central corporation looking to profit from YOUR efforts." Decentralized also means the community is very censorship resistant. Meaning, you're not going to get blocked or banned for holding some viewpoint Facebook's advertisers don't approve of. Or because someone "had a fit" over an opinion piece you wrote.

The other thing is that content creators are rewarded for their contributions. Again, that would take a long time to fully explain... but imagine — for a moment — that every time someone "liked" one of your Facebook or twitter posts you got a little reward that gradually was added towards you becoming a stake holder in the very system you were using.

That's kind of how Steemit works.

Results vary, of course. For some bloggers and content creators, it adds up to a lot more than they ever made by monetizing their blogs with Google Adsense. Or by adding ads to their YouTube channel. For others... it's just a few coins.

I'm mostly there for the community and because the level of discussion and engagement I've found tends to be a lot more intelligent and respectful than other social media I have used.

Oh, and because it does remind me of the good old days of social blogging! Xanga redux, anyone?

So, I'd like to invite you to check it out! Here's a link to my own channel but do explore. Sure, you will find a lot of techy/nerdy stuff, but you'll also find a lot of just "regular folks."

Thanks for reading!

Just because it's pretty, that's why!

A Footnote to my Steemit Followers

If this post sounds a bit "odd" it's because it was written to an audience external to Steemit; namely my old social blogging friends from "way back when," as well as my followers on twitter and Facebook.

In addition, I wrote this in response to @nathanmars' ongoing twitter challenge to bring #steem to the world, and also as part of @jaynie's ongoing #steemtweets challenge.

If you think this "adds value" as a promotional piece, please consider re-steeming for greater visibility!

(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 190212 15:22 PST
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