Looks like a Dog

That's my dog there, Viski (It just looks like I took the photo while driving). He is a good dog and great with my daughter, even when she plays a little rough, he is patient. When I take him out for walks he does what dogs do, sniffs around, looks for signs of life, friends, mischief and doesn't mind chasing a ball around the field. People comment on him and often call him a puppy because of his wagging tail and friendly demeanor. He is 84, 12 in human years.

They say, Dogs resemble their owners, perhaps it is reversed though and owners start to look like their dogs. Makes sense as we are shaped by our environment. In the nature/nurture ratios, humans are probably the most affected in the animal kingdom by nurture and e are heavily influenced by our surrounds, especially our cultural environment.

People talk about culture a lot in many different perspectives but, they rarely look at their own past the surface level nonsense like what they eat or, what religion they say they belong to. But, this all really is pretty meaningless as the most influential factor on us is, who we spend our time with.

Family obviously has a significant impact on us but as we grow, peer groups start to make the larger impression and nudge a lot of everyday behaviors like the way we speak or, our perspective of how we see the world and interact with others. We start to reflect them in various ways and because we are around them, the spiral of reinforcement and confirmation bias escalates the uptake and, the comfort level as group norms settle in.

Each group of friends is a micro culture that we start to resemble, at least when we are in the presence of that group. We can be in several groups though and we can change our behavior as well as our views depending on who we are with at the moment. Much of this comes down to individual incentives within group dynamics where we are either looking to fit in or, perhaps stand out as the case may be. Depending on circumstances and what we want, we could defer to or exert dominance over others. We are social animals, we are all affected.

How often do we spend time thinking about who we spend our time with and what kinds of people they might actually be? In the walking world even though in some situations we are forced to interact with people we may not want to, generally in social and private life, we don't look to spend our free time with people we do not like.

This has been somewhat interrupted by online interaction though as we tend not to know who the people we interact with actually are yet, they are still going to influence and shape us. There is a freeing aspect of this as it opens us up to a lot of new potential people but, there is also the engineered group issue that can quickly create echo chambers.

For example, if we were able to look at the people we interact with on Steem or in chats the most, what would we find? Are the people like us, are their accounts similar to ours, the way they engage? I am not talking about them creating the same but, what is their general view of Steem, positive or negative? Are they on average here for the money, shitposting, scamming?

Is it a Steem culture circlejerk?

When people talk about the culture here I find it quite interesting because, there are many cultures here and, I am not talking about ethnic groups. who you spend your time with matters because, no matter whether you believe it or not, you are affected by them and they can help you be better or, bring you down.

I have my daughter to think about and when she grows, I hope she doesn't spend her time hanging out in drug dens with addicts, even if she isn't a user. A father can dream. The reason is that no matter how smart she is, the attitudes of the group culture are going to influence each member, a cultural circlejerk and her chances at being anything other than close to that group diminish the more time she spends their as it becomes the, new normal.

We see it here as price fell, very few people maintained their level of quality as the new normal was, shitpost, no one cares. When people see the highest rewarded account on the platform by a mile is a shitposter, self-circlejerker with zero engagement, new normals form. When you spend all your time with people who don't engage, see Steem as shit or, shill Steem, new normals form. These don't form in the group, they are installed into individuals who make up the group.

People forget that groups and culture are made up of individual behaviors, including theirs. They forget that the most oppressive governments and corporations are made up of individual humans working together. So are the best forms of groups too. As said, who you spend your time around is going to change you. Who I spend my time around is going to change me too and, it will affect our views of the world with each of us suffering confirmation bias in some way, shape or form.

The more time one spends in a narrow group, the more chance that group will push to extremes through the bias and support of ideas that are supported by the bias. Circlejerk. It ramps up and entire groups can get shifted in a relatively short amount of time. Do the individuals actually change?

Perhaps it depends on the individual but, it also depends on where they spend the rest of their time. If they have few balancing factors or alternative groups to temper weighting, the group becomes very important to the individual and a defining factor in behavior where other groups with alternative views are seen as enemies. It is tribalism.

We see it play out often enough here that while everyone believes that they want what is best for Steem, they only act what is in their best interest which depending on the attachment, what is best for that of their group. Just more political parties claiming they are the only ones to know the way forward or backward as the case may be.

If there is a best way, no one group however is likely to have the answer because they are incentivized to overweigh the odds in their favor. If there is a best way, it is going to be a hybrid approach that can include many people and a lot of diversity but, encourages good behavior that benefits both the individual and the greater group and groups with, no matter the group type, content or various culture. No easy task but, listen to what people say and you will hear how simple it is.

I find Steem fascinating which is probably an influencing factor that pushes my content into various areas as well as drives me to engage with many different people. In the last 24 hours I have written 53 comments to the blockchain to accounts ranging from 25 rep to 74 with all kinds of various ideas covered from the funny to the serious.

When people talk about low engagement levels I am in my own echo chamber and suffer the confirmation bias to the contrary. Engagement is very high here, much higher than that of Facebook, for me.

The 4 comments were essentially 'nice post' type comments. Sure, I don't spend much time there and that is just a photo but, I don't spend time there for a reason and that is because, I enjoy my time here much more. The 'engagement' on Facebook and Instagram is appalling in my opinion and Twitter is a platform full of trolls and shills. Is Medium any better? Not unless you are already famous or willing to work like an absolute dog to get famous.

Here, I am willing to work like a dog except, I don't see it as work in the same way as most experience their jobs. For me, there is more to this place than getting some return although, that is definitely a large incentive. I like it here, I like that it is changing in unpredictable ways too, I like the uncertainty, I like the interaction and I wish I had the time to spend more time on it but, I already spend a massive amount on it. But, that is my journey, some people are similar, some not.

In chats and on chain, I tend to spend my time around people who enjoy their time here for a number of different reasons. Although there are plenty of conversations (perhaps most) around the negatives of the place, there is a lot of hope that there are solutions and many are actively working toward them in numerous ways. For me, spending time with these types of people makes me better, at least from my perspective and reflection of my experience.

How we behave attracts to or pushes people away from us, how we interact and treat people influences our group and how our group sees the world impacts also. Who we spend our time with matters because it affects our experience.

My dog is an old man but is full of energy, I hope as I age I resemble him. I already have the greying beard.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
_{Posted with Steempress}