Why Facebook isn't the first social media site I check in the morning anymore [Steemit win]

I've been a member of Steemit for a couple of months now, and without even realizing it, my habits have changed for the better. Before Steemit, I was one of "those" people, before even sitting up in the morning, checking notifications on my smartphone to see which of my friends posted up something interesting overnight. It didn't take long to come to the conclusion, Facebook is full of crap. Steemit has become my go-to for many reasons throughout the day, fulfilling wants and needs of mine that Facebook can't and won't.
image credit

News-worthy and intellectual

image credit

I have spent more time in the last two month researching topics and my family's history than I have in ten plus years of belonging to Facebook. I never had to before, except for college, the majority of my friends could care less about cryptocurrency or the history of our nation's spaceflights. The articles I find on Steemit are more interesting to me than some silly quiz on Facebook to find out if I cut my meat the right way.

Sitting down with my coffee in the morning, I enjoy looking through the articles from overnight and the new ones as well, seeing what is going on in the world. I don't have cable so the internet is my main access to news, but personally I find CNN and FoxNews biased and a product of what the government wants us to know. Pure, unadulterated reporting from across the globe, that's what I want. Cut the censorship. Let us think for ourselves, we are big girls and boys, we can handle it.

Diversity of Content and People

image credit

This leads me into my next reason I prefer Steemit over Facebook - diversity. Although Steemit is still in its infancy, compared to some other social media outlets, there are Steemers from all over the world. And they aren't filtered from my feeds because I am not "friends" with them. Now I'll be honest, I am picky about who my friends are on FB, I have kids to protect. I know most of them in RL or they have been vetted before becoming a friend. But most of them are in the US.
People from across the world will open our eyes to new and different cultures, likes, journeys, etc., bringing us all together in a common goal. Passing information to bring enlightenment to others. I enjoy seeing photos of Steemer's travels across the continents. I will probably never get to many of these places, but I love that they are shared.

Anonymity

image credit

Now, I'm not saying that we should all be anonymous on here. That's the reason why we do the introduceyourself posts. I am Me, I am a Real Person. But I have no real life friends or family on here at the moment. That may change, but for now, they are on FB. I share with them on there, photos, family moments, and the like. On here, I write whatever I please with no fear of admonishment or shaming from those in my life that may not agree with my thoughts and views. I have family in politics, I know what its like to have a family member that holds different political views than myself. I prefer to come on here and rant about whatever is on my mind, I'll go into that in the next section.
Personally, I find it easier to write for an audience that doesn't know me, and I will probably never actually meet outside of here. I like that what I write is open to all members, not just my chosen friends and family. Maybe what I write will impact someone that I never expected and open their eyes to something new. Being anonymous, to a certain extent, has certainly brought me out of my shell, pushing me to share my thoughts and opinions with the world. I am an introvert. Sitting behind a computer is the most comfortable place in the world for me. But being able to put my rants out there has changed the way I look at life, and finding other people like me, that is priceless. I've found a few similar souls on here, bringing me even further into the light of sharing.

Appreciation of thought

image credit

I've written some pretty lengthy and I believe, thought provoking articles on Steemit in the last couple of months. I've shared my family's history, my personal history, my travels, and even some recipes. Almost all of them have gotten some decent love on here, of course in the upvote manner. If I posted even 70% of that on Facebook, my friends and family wouldn't have given it another glance. If I post a photo of my kids doing something cute, I might get a few likes, mostly from my close family. Maybe its the company I've kept, but you can't choose your family, right? Most are not the type to click that "continue reading" link, definitely not the type to sit and read an article on nuclear weapons for 10-15 minutes. Actually I have on on chemical weapons I wrote years ago I'm contemplating on writing an article for, its interesting to see what the state of the world was back then compared to now. Anyways, I digress. I don't know if your inner circle is like mine, but they just don't appreciate intellectual pieces, especially not on FB. I see much more of that on Steemit, and it is great to see this kind of effort coming from so many people on here to make this an educated and stimulating social media site. I have a saying that I've used for years (not sure where it came from) - My day isn't complete unless I've learned something new. I was in a stagnant state for quite sometime, my brain was definitely not getting the work-out that it deserves. Now I wake up in the morning, looking forward to reading something interesting on here on science, crypto, whatever strikes my fancy. And I thank all Steemers, @dantheman, @ned, @stellabelle, and the rest for bringing this to the world.

Lack of stupid stuff

I was debating on whether or not to include this section, and upon checking my Facebook for anything useful, I just had to. My FB feed is ridiculous... people in search of free stuff all over the place, stupid memes, a thousand and one photos of kids running in circles, things that people believe are news but they apparently haven't googled the word "news" lately.
Of course there are funny things on here, memes as well. But not to the extent that FB has been innundated by any means. And I can scroll past them quite a bit faster if I'm not in the mood. I can go straight to the topics that I'm interested in without having to search my timeline that may or may not include even one scientific article worth reading. I can't be the only one that feels this way. Isn't this why we search for a new social media to meet our needs and wants?

I love the New topic feed!

image credit

Have you ever sat on FB and tried to refresh your newsfeed, only to find its the same stuff over and over again? I used to do that on a regular basis. Once I got on Steemit, I come here for new articles throughout the day. Sure I still check Facebook but not near as frequently as I did before. Facebook dictates what they want you to see, and yes they do censure certain topics. Just look at the coverage of the presidential election...Bernie v. Hillary. I'm a Bernie fan, and it was disgusting how many Bernie sites and groups got shut down while Hillary and Trump innundate my feeds even though I don't belong to a single one of their groups. That's just one example of Facebook's dictation of what they think we should be seeing and "liking". On Steemit, everything, everywhere is fair game. At any given time I can go to the New topic and see a plethora of various topics being posted. And it moves quickly! Sometimes I'm in search for a short article for a brief read and other times I enjoy a lengthy article that really titillates the mind. There are people on here that are truly interested in educating the world which, at my age, really is more important than what a person I never met before made for breakfast (with accompanying photo of course).

Don't get me wrong, I am not going to delete my Facebook account any time soon. It does hold some value to me. Its how I communicate with family members across the country, where I share family moment photos, sell items I no longer need, and advertise my business. But...for the majority of my intellectual stimulation and ranting needs, it is to Steemit I come!