On the Steem platform, a voting circle-jerk is generally a group of accounts that vote on each other consistently overtime without distributing much out from the circle in order to maximize return. These have been common for the last 3 years on Steem, but have somewhat been replaced by delegations to bidbots which give a higher return than circle-jerking with less effort.

But, there is another kind of circle-jerk that is ever present on Steem and is more pronounced during low prices and hardforks and that is, the emotional circle-jerk. You know the ones I am talking about, perhaps you are in one yourself - the groups of people who echo-chamber themselves with like minds that provide a confirmation bias of their thoughts and emotions.

As they say, birds of a feather flock together, however this could be even more apparent when viewed from an emotional perspective as people look for conditions that justify their mood. Think about it in terms of what music you will listen to when feeling sad or angsty like a moody teen sitting around with other moody teens listening to Nirvana. Yeah, I am old.

The environment we inhabit at any given time has a great deal of influence over how we behave as well as feel, but what I find is that when emotionally charged to the negative, people become more passive in searching for better conditions and instead look to feed their mood more fuel. On Steem this generally comes in the form of the emotional circle-jerk that then criticizes others outside of the same view.

However, what doesn't happen is the reflection that groups are inhabiting different experiences at any given time, depending on the environment conditions. It is much like a person watching an emotional drama on Netflix criticizing another person watching a Comedy on Netflix. Same platform, different source of food and when the sources we eat from are negative and we are already feeling uncertain about the future, it is much easier to connect with to explain our discomfort.

But, at least for most of us on Steem we are all adults and we have to take responsibility for our feelings and actions. If we choose to feel a certain way by creating an environment that feeds our fears, that is on us as an individual. I feel that too often on Steem time and energy is spent trying to keep people here who are always looking for a reason to leave, rather than supporting those building to stay. I am sure that there is a Pareto principle in play here somewhere.

Emotional circle-jerks can work in the positive also of course and I am often "accused" of being too positive on Steem, yet I know myself better than others know me and, I know what keeps me active. I also make a pretty good idea that if Steem is t be successful, it will be through the activity of people working toward success, not the activity of the negative charged about the future of Steem.

I don't think there is a successful enterprise on earth where the owners of it have been negative about its future so stopped working for it. However, pretty much all successful enterprises have had investors leave because they didn't believe that there was a future for it.

Perhaps the difference of activity and emotional state is down to the sense of ownership and therefore responsibility one feels about the inhabited world, in this case Steem. While I don't own my daughter, I am responsible for her and regardless of how annoying and frustrating she is at times, I do not discard her for not living up to my ideals and often enough, she teaches me things that I wouldn't have discovered otherwise.

But, we are adults here and we make our decisions about the world in which we currently live and our actions become the created world that we will live in. I personally would like to live in a better world than the one we have created so far, and I believe that Steem can help that cause move along. I do not discount that many could believe that the world is currently perfect the way it is and therefore try to maintain the status quo. Nor do I discount that people think that supporting their emotional state at any given time is the best way to approach experience.

The problem however with supporting emotions is that they are fickle and change quickly and completely often enough with conditions. A lot of people on Steem have proven over the last year that while in the good times they were happy to be positive on the future and act toward success, in poor conditions they are unwilling to keep up their façade. Due to their emotion states affecting and swinging their behavior so strongly, they cannot be trusted.

While some people might think that this evaluation is harsh, it really isn't at all as it is quite observable through how people act on the blockchain. If you look through the history of an account, you can see how all the little pain points and positive blips of those who are emotionally charged by the environment and shift their behavior to suit their emotions of the moment. Remember, that emotions do not need reality to be evoked, they just need a reality - however misinformed.

As adults though, our experience is our own and the responsibility of our behavior is ours as well. Some people will spend their time exploring and find a great deal of value, others will spend the same time and find none. But, as Steem is a city, the impression one has over it is going to change whether spending time in the metaphorical business district, the suburbs or the ghettos.

Perhaps when we form these circles the emotions, we are acting upon are not ours at all, just a social reflection of how our neighbors feel. While geographical mobility is a challenge in the real world, on Steem we can pick and choose where we spend our time and with whom we engage. Even when we can be in the same conditions, the frame of perspective can be ultimately different.

Just like when it comes to chronic illness or extreme adverse experiences - there are survivors and there are victims. It is a matter of perceived agency which dictates which. With so many of the social experiences these days being consumptive and passive without user ownership, the feelings of victimhood seem to keep rising because - there is nothing else to do but appeal to the authorities for mercy to protect emotional states. And with such compelling and convenient experiences on offer it becomes, digital slavery.
As always, your life is your own, as are your emotions.

Taraz Kanti-Paul
[ a Steem original ]