My Worst Steemit Experience
Opposition In All Things
If there's any consistency to life, outside of change (ponder that for a moment), it's this: everything has an opposite.
Without waxing too philosophical, opposites exist. It's impossible to know, feel or experience something without also experiencing some measure of its opposite. To truly experience joy, you also need to know sorrow. To feel loved, you need to know what hate is. To triumph, there needs to be failure. I believe this idea of opposites in life to be a universal truth.
This looks pretty bad. But is it the worst?
That's How You Start This Off?
Well, after already talking about the best thing that's happened to me on Steemit, it's only natural that there would be an opposite experience—a worst kind of experience, right? I imagine those who participate in today's May 30 Days Writing Challenge, conceived of and implemented by @dragosroua, will have varying degrees of this particular subject prompt: What's The Worst Thing That Happened To You Because Of Steemit?
So, yes, I start off with the idea of opposites, because while they exist, they might not always be equal in intensity or severity. Not that we would want to go seeking the bad to understand and fully appreciate the good. The thought is, there needs to be some level of both to be able to differentiate between the two.
So, You're Saying A Bad Experience On Steemit Is Inevitable
You catch on quickly.
However, it's all relative, too. What may be the worst experience to one person, may not be such a big deal to someone else, and so on.
Some people's posts have been flagged, for apparently no reason. Others have found themselves falling out of a partnership or other kind of relationship after spending some amount of time unified and trying to build something great here. Still others will find themselves in constant argument with someone over important and trivial matters. A constant barrage of disparaging and vulgar insults might be someone's worst experience here.
That's not to say that any of those things are inevitably going to happen to everyone. It is true to say that any of those are quite possible to happen to someone.
Are You Stalling? I Think You're Stalling
No stalling. Just some quick observations, and an acknowledgement that if good things are happening here on Steemit, than bad things are probably happening, too. Or better put, positive and negative experiences. It's the way life is. And just because there are negative experiences, does not mean that the overall experience can't be positive. Most of the time we end up taking bad along with the good. Every once in a while that perfect day (at least in our perception and then our memory) arrives. Otherwise, it's going to be a net positive or net negative. And that's okay. We accentuate the positive, recognize and mitigate as much as we can the negative and we move on.
My Worst Experience On Steemit
I like to know what I'm getting myself into. Especially, when I'm leaning towards putting money into something. An investment, a car, whatever that financial transaction might be where a significant amount of money will be leaving my bank account. It's virtually impossible to know everything, mind you, but I do like to know enough (positive and negative), before I jump into anything.
Well, I poked around Steemit for an hour or so back in December of last year prior to deciding to signup. It wasn't a very long period of research, but I found some cool things, and some not so cool things, and decided the net takeaway was positive enough to go ahead and start the account approval process. After I was in, about two weeks later, I started doing what I will call research into different things based on some newer and older posts I'd run across, most likely in a search for something else entirely.
I did not like what I found.
Already details of it have faded from memory, and since I really don't want to bring them back up, suffice it to say that I went down the Steemit rabbit hole not once but twice, and had moments of crises both times.
It's truly not fun to discover that you may, or may not, be in the middle of an elaborate social experiment, or some real life massively multiplayer online role-playing game, where you can't really win, and where those who have won stick around to make sure you don't ever win. Life can feel stacked against you enough at times. You don't have to find confirmation that it is.
But Now You're Better, Right?
Well, yes, of course. I can't say I've gotten over the experiences, but I am still here. Life isn't fair, so why should Steemit be? And even so, just as in life, there are many people here that are trying to make Steemit a better place, despite the stacked deck, or maybe even because of it. There's a stubborn streak among some of us humans that just don't agree that things are impossible. It doesn't sit well with us to be told that you can't do something, or that something can't be done. Eventually, all things are possible.
So, after finding the worst things about Steemit, I've also managed to come across the best things about Steemit, and the net result is more than enough to keep me going.
Would I want to lose a week or so again, wondering what the heck I was doing here and why I was wasting my time, and then feel like I needed to apologize to my wife for wasting her time, too? No. But having the experience helps me to put other experiences in perspective, both the negative and the positive. And while I'm not about to sweep the negative things about Steemit under some virtual rug, I'm not willing to dwell on them and pick at them to the point of doing nothing else. There's too many positive things to be doing. And for now at least, that's my desire. To keep positive, and let the chips fall where they may.
I get what you are saying but we are part of a social experament every day of our lives. We as humans were never designed to wake up at a certain time and drag our selves to a place we hate for 8 or more hours a day and live stressed out lives. That is why suicide is a First world problem. People in 3rd world countries rarely commit suicide , they just want to live. All the while here in America people are killing themselves over just being so stressed out that they snap. In reality they are living lives that others would kill for but the social expierement put them over the edge because they simply can't make ends meet. Does that make sense or was I just rambling?
Oh, I wouldn't say you're rambling. There's plenty of social engineering going on in real life, and while there's going to be nuances to what you said about suicide, it's true that the Western world and the U.S. in particular, is looked at as the example of prosperity and opportunity.
At the same time, it's all looked upon as a place of excesses, decadence and immorality. So prosperity coupled with a society losing it's moral compass, however that is determined, is not a good combination. It leads to a downfall at some point, and the individuals deciding life isn't worth it for one reason or another are often caught in that ebb and flow, whether they recognize it or not. Some of the most successful people I've heard of have committed suicide because of the fame and fortune. So, it's definitely happening more here than in other countries where survival is more of the mainstay (for various reasons), which is also kind of a strange role reversal because you would think more people would just give up.
Steemit/STEEM, however, is meant to be a higher ideal. It's supposed to cut through all of the outside world garbage and make things better. When the same thing that goes on out there (surprise, surprise) appears to be happening here, that's where the disillusionment begins. I'm not talking about the fact that you can't just put up something from the internet, make loads and expect everyone to be happy with it. There's still effort involved, and a lot of it will go unrewarded. I'm talking about the fact that despite the lofty ideals, the exact opposite of decentralized power is taking place, and that too many people are concerned with their own place in that power and their own stake (at any level of it) to reach out and help others. It's a shame.
That said, the leagues and other initiatives are helping to combat all that, and I would hope that in another year or two (in addition to whatever Steemit Inc might eventually drop on us), to see even greater tangible results from our efforts, to the turning of the tide. :)
I can agree with all that and hope for the same in the coming year or so.
:fingers crossed:
That's me! Tell me I can't do something, and I'll focus on nothing else :)
Despite of, or in spite of your negative experiences, I'm glad you found positive reasons to stay!
I'm glad I'm still here, too. I think it's a worthwhile pursuit, with plenty of good and cool people to hang out with. As it is, though, my time here will probably be curtailed in the coming weeks because my wife isn't seeing the progress she would like to see from this little endeavor of mine.
Since she's one of the few individuals I figure I should answer to in this life, I should probably do something about her wishes and find another source of income.
I can't remember exactly when I started to be this way, but at some point someone said, that's impossible, or you can't do that, or I just came upon a challenge no one else was able to conquer, and I thought, "Oh, yeah? Watch this!" And then I either found out how hard it was, and learned from it, anyway, or I managed to have enough grit, determination and wherewithal to accomplish the task.
I just think too many excuses are made. Most problems are solvable (though there are some that aren't, because they're so entangled with other problems). People just need to be willing to step back, see them for what they are, get their pride or their prejudice out of the way, and do something about it.
There are a lot of negative things about steemit but I think the ogood outweighs it and the awesome people that you meet makes up for it.
Sure there are some really big assholes here you that you just want to start punching them in the face but I am no longer someone who would argue becuase there are more things that matter than getting the betterhand on an asshole.
The world is big enough, i don't see them, I don't interact with them and so I focus on the good.
You know of what you speak.
It's like anything else in life. What's the net sum? Positive or negative?
I haven't really had that many brushes with people who were in my face yet. It's happened once or twice and I just tried to work through what was happening without getting overly excited. I haven't been flagged, though, as we've talked elsewhere, so that'll be interesting when that happens. The other conversations worked out okay.
I only know one person here in real life, so I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt and try to be a little more patient and polite when it comes to responses. I have my strong opinions, and I'll defend them, but there's definitely more than one way to do that, and if you can do it without burning bridges or making enemies, all the better.
So, positive it is and onward and upward we go. :)
I look at the Steemit world as a way for me to have a blog without actually having a blog. The only work I have to do is create the content and maybe some minor advertising to get it looked at. The only thing I'm investing is time and if Steemit up and disappears I really lost nothing because writing blog posts was cathartic and the fact that I got to interact with some people I never would've otherwise was enchanting. Glad you're sticking around and that I found your post.
That's really the best approach. Steemit is free. It costs something, but the user doesn't have to put out a dime. And really, there's no mandate to do anything, either. I started out realizing all that (and still did and do, even in the tougher times), but it got overshadowed for a few days because the information I ran into made feel that the wool was intentionally being pulled over people's eyes. Not in your case, because of the way you look at things, but in so many other cases, where people came here expecting one thing and find something totally different.
My expectations were somewhat tempered, and I still felt it. Anyway, I'm still here, I'm finding purpose and my place here, and interacting with others is good, and posting is what I came to do, so can't let that slack, especially when I'm starting to see some return. I'm glad you found my post, too. :)
I come from a place where bad weather is the norm, one thing I've noticed after relocating is that I rarely truely enjoy a sunny day as much as I used to do.
Interesting how that works, isn't it? You don't have the contrasting bad weather as much, so the sunny day isn't as big a deal as it was.
Great observation. :)
The most logical course one can take. I am glad you were able to move past the things you saw. Steemit is better for your being here.
Well, I appreciate the sentiment, and I can say the same thing about you and many others. It does depend greatly on how we go about things here, and what our focus and attention is on. Life is not always a positive place, and therefore, neither is Steemit. There is a need to recognize it and do what you can to remedy the situation. But then, there comes a point where you just can't do anything about it, and harping on it as if it were the end of the world or everyone's stupid for hanging around or not thinking as you do doesn't help. It turns people away, even if there's truth to the message. So, you have a choice. You can either accept there are things you cannot change and move forward over that which you can control—you—or you move on and go elsewhere. Say your piece and go.
I wish logic played a greater role in all of our decisions, as important as I feel emotions are. Anger or worry and good decision making, in my experience, are mostly on opposite ends of the spectrum. :)