Urdu community Contest / S2W1 – Why and how Steemit social media is different and better than other social media by @meniya

Hello Urdu community, so glad to be here and be part of this contest. Below is my entry post for this contest.

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SOCIAL MEDIA

As we already know this is the 21st century and is technological driven with many sectors that helps enhance and improve our society of which Social media is one of the technological portals or platform that makes the world more lively, interactive, connect to one another, serves as a bridge to break distance barriers, an advertising platform and must importantly an avenue to wealth creation in the world today. Social Media is a virtual platform that connects people together globally, ranging from been connected with family close or far away, meeting new friends and business aligns. Currently, social media is one of the greatest and fastest technology in the world that aids in communication and the flow of information. The presence of Social media as helped improve the stress of letter writing and the use of post office, long waiting to receive letters and get replies all for the purpose of communication, and sometimes these letters are been misplaced or damaged due to carelessness of the staffs in post office. All thanks to social media platforms these issues have been mitigated to the barest minimum, with less stress, little charges (data), and a very fast medium.

There are many social media platforms used globally some of them are; Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Discord, YouTube, Ayoba, Mastodon, Steemit etc. Social Media are partitioned into Decentralized and Centralized platforms.

Decentralized social media are platforms created by a central authority, it is an open-source platform and runs on a social blockchain technology, it gives its users full control over contents created by the user. Decentralized social media gives its users full license of expression and control of their accounts and passwords, but this is not seen in centralized social media as the central authority have laid down rules and regulations to user's that operates the platform. Examples of Decentralized social media are Steemit, Mastodon.

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Centralised social media are Innovated and controlled by a central authority, they have full control over the platform including their users account and contents created here. Although this type of social media, gives its users access to operate their account but must adhere strictly to the standards and conditions of the central, if found wanting the users account can be restricted or completely deleted. One can say there is no resistance to censorship for the users and there is no complete freedom of expression with centralized social media. Examples of centralized social media platforms are WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter etc.

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MY MOST USED SOCIAL MEDIA DAILY AND ITS BENEFITS

Source

The social media I used mostly all day is WhatsApp. WhatsApp platform is a centralized social media that is contacts oriented, I say so because only contacts registered on your SIM can interact and communicate with you on this platform. There must be an exchange of mobile numbers before one can communicate with others, unlike with other centralized social media like Facebook and YouTube which doesn't necessarily work on only contacts basis, as one can send a friend request to someone the see randomly on the platform and connect from there. With WhatsApp one has to first make contact with the mobile numbers, then the next person on the other end can choose to save the person's number to continue the connection or restrict the person from getting in connected with them by opting for block feature on WhatsApp.

I'm always online on WhatsApp platform, it's my best and most used daily because it keeps me closer to family and friends, I get information from other persons and I always get updates of happenings via status feature of WhatsApp, in turn I get to advertise my business, get new clients and communicate effectively with them with minimal charges as WhatsApp social media uses small amount of data. I send documents in word or pdf across to someone on WhatsApp with very small data.

I can remember vividly my first recruittee to Steemit platform was through my WhatsApp STATUS. So that day, I uploaded a link of my Steemit content and a friend of mine viewed it and later sent me a chat, she liked my content from there I told her about the platform and how it operates she got excited and joined. So I spend most of my time on WhatsApp daily.

One benefit of WhatsApp is that it's provides a platform for me to be closer to my friends and family away from my country, I chat, voice call, and video call them when even I wish and this makes me happy. One unique feature I love about WhatsApp is the Status feature I get to do business, see new ideas, get to know clients better on one on one basis and communicate with the world globally.

Every chats and calls are private to only the persons involved, as WhatsApp platform is end to end encrypted. If any funny act is suspected by any contact they can be reported to the central authority and you can choice to block too. WhatsApp is a very flexible, easy to operate and fun social media platform. It has a strong security system and is very private unlike Facebook and Instagram platforms that makes visible your chats with someone else and I don't like that, because I love my privacy.

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SPENDING MORE TIME ON STEEMIT

I got to know about Steemit platform 14months ago, within this period I have gained alot and have become better in life than when I was only active in other social media platforms. I have grown mentally, academically, financially and socially. Personally, I think Spending more time on Steemit platform than other social media will help me even be better than I am presently in many ways;

Since my inception into Steemit platform, I can boldly say my financial status has improved, getting to know about Steemit as a platform that it rewards its users that creates quality contents that are plagiarism free. I got my financial freedom on this platform, I can now take care of my needs and support my family and community at large. if I spend more time on Steemit I know my financial level will better than it is before the end of this year.

Steemit platform is a social media platform that helps in capacity building, this is one growth I observed in my life, being on Steemit platform I can now do things I couldn't do before, I now write articles with lengthy words, my mental capacity is now broaden the more I write the more exposed I am to different aspects of life. For instance before knowing Steemit I didn't know anything about Crypto Trading all thanks to SteemitCryptoAcademy I got exposed to crypto world, I learnt how to trade cryptocurrencies, I gained knowledge about crypto space of which if I spend more time on Steemit I know I will become a pro soon in crypto trading.

Steemit platform has greatly improved my life in many ways, one important aspect am always grateful for is the area of Content creation. Before now I had no idea of content creation but today I can do that, every time I spend on steemit improves my creation ideas. Currently, I was able to write Statement of purpose for a friend who wants to school in UK, and I did excellently.

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ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF STEEMIT

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Advantages

•Financial empowerment
Steemit empowers it's users financially by rewarding authors with good and quality contents that are plagiarism free, Steemit helps users to become financially stable and from here many users have been able to start up other business from the money made on this platform.

•Avenue to more exposure
Steemit platform creates and avenue for individuals to become more exposed to varieties of things in life, ranging from creative ideas, learning new cooking recipes, meeting people with different backgrounds and most importantly exposing users to digital world like crypto trading lessons gotten from SteemitCryptoAcademy. This is one unique advantage of Steemit social media.

•Improves creative ability
Steemit helps users to be more inclined in creative world, as the world today is more interested in what one can be able to create. Writing and creating contents is very tasking and your personal creative idea makes it unique. With Steemit you are tasked to be more creative to get good and quality content ,beginning from your writing skills. Hence, the use of markdown styles in Steemit platform. This is one area spending my time on Steemit has improved my creativity and writing skills.

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Disadvantages

•High data consumption
From my observation and personally speaking I can't access Steemit platform once my data is less than 50mb, and if am not buoyant enough that day I won't be able access my Steemit account, but with other social media platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook I can access them with less data.

•Little or no privacy
This is one con of Steemit platform, a user's account and wallet details are made visible to everyone on the platform, anyone can go through your wallet and know what you worth. Unlike other social media like YouTube which protects a user's wallet information from the public.

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COMPARING STEEMIT VS OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA

•Freedom of expression
Some social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter regulates what users put up on the platform, as every user has to follow the laid down standards and rules when using the platform, failure to do so can result to your account been banned or suspended temporarily, there is no complete freedom of expression here, but with Steemit users freely express themselves and have full control of their accounts.

•Limited features
Steemit platform has limited features unlike other social media platforms that have lots of features to enhance communication and connection with other persons globally. Some of these features are private chatting, voice and video calls,Status can be seen on WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram social media platforms.

•Security
To an extent Steemit platform is more secured and safe than other social media platforms. Passwords generated from Steemit platform is well secured and its in such a way that one can't easily memorise or think of, thus making it a bit difficult for hackers. The security of other social media like Facebook and Twitter is not as strong and safe as Steemit. Personally have been a victim of hackers, my first Facebook account was hacked, I had to open another account.

•Rewards users
As have earlier stated, Steemit rewards its users who writes and creates good and quality contents, of which I'm an evidence since I joined Steemit I have been rewarded with tokens(STEEM)
over contents created by me, but since 2010 I joined Facebook I haven't been rewarded for any content I created.

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CONCLUSION

Steemit is a new and innovative social media platform that brings people from different parts of the world together and rewards authors who write good contents and also reward great creative minds. Although, Steemit is still new to social media chain but it's doing well and has brought postive impacts to many lives including me. I see Steemit platform do better than other social media platforms in the near future, once it becomes more popular and recognized.

Thanks for reading through and I'll like to invite @beautiefair, @shonny and @preshymukel to participate in this amazing contest.