Getting rewarded for doing something feel good. We are highly driven by the reward center of our brain and psychology. Taking away a reward feels not-so-good. The reward is a positive reinforcement, while the removal of reward is a negative reinforcement. A reward is like pleasure and the removal of it is like pain. We're motivated to keep doing something when it's a positive. We even increase our performance of doing it.

_{Source: Hloom Templates/flickr, CC BY 2.0}

On Steem, it might be the first time many of us have gotten paid for doing certain things. I, for one, used to write text, do infographics and audio/video for free on my site. It wasn't a daily effort, and I wasn't rewarded in any monetary way either. But now that I'm on Steem, there is a daily effort to put something out there and to get rewarded.

For others, I assume they or you didn't used to write as much, or draw as much, or do whatever as much. I bet you didn't post as much either. But that has changed with being on Steem. We're being rewarded, and that keeps us doing something, and doing more of it.

_{Source: pxhere}

Contrary to before where we were doing something and not getting rewarded, now we might be getting rewarded with upvotes and STEEM. This makes us feel good. We are receiving a positive reinforcement to keep doing what we do. Before, we did it for the sake of doing something we presumably enjoyed. Now, we still have that drive, but it's probably to a lesser degree for many of us. Now, we are motivated to put out content because we are getting rewarded for it.

Now that we do or can get rewarded for doing something, would we go back to doing it for free? Would we still be on Steem if there were no more rewards tomorrow? Likely, many of us still would be. But I doubt many of us would be posting as frequently as we are.

Without the allure of being rewarded for our content or work, we wouldn't be as invested and motivated to keep doing the same thing; to keep putting in the same amount of time, energy, effort, dedication, determination and persistence to keep putting out content. We persevere in doing it because it's a pleasure in the reward center of our brain, be it for money or other rewards.

_{Source: wikimedia}

Being rewarded with money is a part of positive reinforcement to keep doing what we do. It's a pleasure that we would notice being without. Once we stop getting paid to do something we get used to being paid to do, we don't enjoy it as much and we won't want to simply go back to doing it for free.

All that time, energy and work can be spent elsewhere, in other areas of our life, where we are also not getting paid. The things we do would get a more of a even evaluation, and we would choose to spend time doing things. Possibly things that would have other rewards, intrinsic rewards for doing them in themselves, rather than even having a monetary reward component to them at all.

There is still a reward and positive reinforcement from attention and interaction on Steem that would keep us on Steem. But we would be much less drawn to or "addicted" to it if the positive reinforcement and pleasure derived from making money was absent.

What do you think? Would you still be here if there was no money? Would you still be posting as much? Would you find other things to do instead?

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