STEEM: How to explain STEEM and STEEMIT to anyone over the age of 40..!! Green Shield Stamps to STEEM in 25 Years..!!

in steem •  7 years ago  (edited)

Explaining STEEM to a +40 year old.

Green Shield Stamps to Steem in 35 years..!!.png

Regular Readers of my Blog will know that over the last year I have tried out various ways to help explain the concept of STEEM and STEEMIT to hundreds of people and was determined to try various explanations until I found one that works.

Over this last year I had realised that explaining STEEM and STEEMIT to anyone in the earlier 20's is totally different to explaining STEEM and STEEMIT to someone in their 40's, 50's, 60's and +70's.

Recently I stumbled across by accident a great way of explaining the concept and it appears to be working.

GREEN SHIELD STAMPS

Anyone in their +40's may recall Green Shield Stamps.

For the ones unfamiliar with them, here is a brief history...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Shield_Stamps

Cedit:wikipedia

Green Shield Stamps History.png

As a child being brought up in the 70's I have vivid memories of my dad filling the car with petrol and coming out of the petrol station with a handful of Green Shield Stamps.

These stamps were collected and stuck in a book.

When we had enough, the family would sit round the table and decide what we wanted out of a catalogue.

For years I recall these great memories how we used to collect these stamps and watch our book fill up.

Fast forward +25 years.

Fast forward +25 years and what we now have is the BLOCKCHAIN.

This digital technology allows the transfer and ownership to be recorded on a distributed ledger for accurate record keeping.

By applying this digitally recorded ledger of transactions to STEEM, you could argue that collecting STEEM is no different than collecting Green Shield Stamps in a book..!!

I have tried this analogy recently and bizarrely it seems to work.

Of course, I doubt it would have any impact on anyone in the 20's who do not remember Green Shield Stamps, but if you are struggling to explain the concept to anyone over the age of +40, I strongly recommend you give it a go.

You may be quietly surprised.

Thanks for reading.

Stephen

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That is so interesting, I have not grown up in the States, but we had a similar thing in Russia, which I vaguely remember as well. Would be interesting to try to explain this to my grandfather this way ))) Thank you for the tip.

I like the analogy, I think the next question would be, "where is the catalog?"

meep

A very creative way to explain what is Steemit all about !

Thank you. I strongly recommend anyone in their 20's reading this to ask their parents and grandparents about Green Shield Stamps. Collecting STEEM in your wallet in NO different, it's just digitally recorded..!! Stephen

I've used the US version of that comparison. Also, poker chips in a casino.

In the US, we had "S&H Green Stamps". I'll never forget my parents waking me up in the middle of the night to go "Bowling for Green Stamps" when I was like 10 years old in the 1970s.

"I'll never forget my parents waking me up in the middle of the night to go "Bowling for Green Stamps"....." hahaha. Stephen

Great idea! I haven't considered approaching my mother due to the strong impression it would be beyond her, but this does sound like it could work with her also. Smart post!

Thank you. Most in my family just didn't seem to get the concept and I found this really works. They usually say something like "...so its like collecting tokens!" When I say "yes", they usually reply with .."...why didn't you say that in the first place!".... Arghhhh. Stephen

Haha, excellent! I'll see what happens in future and report back :)

Excellent post. Thanks for Share!

Thank you. Stephen

Finally, I have a lot of work to do with my surroundings, thank you for sharing @stephenkendal ^^

Sure I've probably got some Green Shield stamps still in my grandads box of old stuff. Maybe they're worth a fortune on the crypto markets? 0.5BTC each perhaps? ;)

Great memories. Sometimes you just have to break things down and get back to the basics and by luck I stumbled across this explanation by chance last week. It has worked every time. Hope everything is going great in Hudderfield and looking forward to picking up from the chat we had last week when we all meet up in Birmingham on the 16th Sept. Cheers bud. Stephen

Aye. Will be good to meet up before then, as the freshers fairs start first week of september and it might be good to discuss strategy. I'm on with the videos, but Im not going to release them till they're all done.

Sounds good to me. Let me know if you fancy meeting up in Hudderfield and we can both hit the streets with the flyers. If we ask Matt @starkerz nicely he may come over and join us. Just don't ask him about my car keys and the guys letter box..!! hahaha. Stephen

Never heard of green shield stamps, but the explanation you give makes sense. I'll give it a go. Thanks Stephen!

Thank you. Keep us all posted on how you get on. Stephen

Will do!

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

haha, I haven't seen Green Shield Stamps for a long time.
I'm getting nostalgic memories of my father and I going through catalogues with our collected stamps for corner shops.
Well this is a really great analogy for all the new old folks who are getting into crypto.
Keep up the great work Stephen! :)

Great memories..!! By sheer accident I used it last week for the first time with someone who was struggling to grasp the concept. When I likened STEEM to Green Shield Stamps the penny suddenly dropped and they totally get it now. Since then I have used it on a few occasions and every time I have managed to get the message across straight away. Anyone reading this really ought to give it a go. Stephen

Excellent way to explain this to the older users whom wish to learn more abot steemit

Thank you. Stephen

GREEN SHIELD STAMPS Yes great explanation Stephen, resteemed, upvoted

No, it's not a good explanation. First, I grew up in the 70's and never heard of Green Shield stamps. Must be a regional thing. Second, the analogy only explains how Steam can be collected and used, but doesn't explain where the hell Steam comes from in the first place. The Green Shield stamps would have been purchased by the gas company with the proceed from selling gas to consumers. But where does the money to produce Steem come from? This will be one of the first questions someone my age or older will ask.

Being from Canada and just a few years under 40 i dont know what green shield stamps are. BUT I am familiar with the concept of collecting branded stamps for future rewards.

Maybe i can try that.

Good post

I never heard of these stamps since they were probably a US phenomenon. They didn't bring them to the American Sector in Berlin were I grew up. I wonder what we had in the 80's/90's as equivalent. There were food stamps and stuff like this but that doesn't really count.

Green Shield Stamps were massive in the U.K. in the 1960's, '70s and 80's..!! Stephen

I see, good to know.

This post may make you rich :) talks about BCH bitcoin Cash
https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@ronaldmcatee/bitcoin-cash-bch-bubble-or-real-thing

Para explicar algo nuevo es necesario siempre romper paradigmas, ya que mientras alguien no sea flexible para entender nuevas formas de pensar, se resistirá y no entenderá ni papa. De cierta manera es actualizar todo un sistema.

a what?? a green shield?? is that something green lantern used ??

It stands to reason those over 40 might understand this analogy, here's to more 40 plus people joining Steemt as a result.
upvote & resteem

right

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

Now that is really interesting,creative thinking to explain in details.

Thank you. I strongly recommend anyone in their 20's mentioning Green Shield Stamps to their parents and grandparents and ask them just how big they were in the '60s, '70s and '80s. They will look at STEEM in a totally different light after they do..!! Stephen