Hello everyone and happy Eid Mubarak to our professor @yousafharoonkhan, and our Muslim brothers and sisters on steemit. This week is all about Decentralization and Centralization social media.
There has been an increase in the use of social media platforms over the years, with changes in the development of social media platforms. There has been wide spread of false information, censorship, and control of user accounts on the centralized platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. These changes has led to the development of the decentralized social network.

Definition of Decentralized and Centralized Social Media.
Decentralized social media runs on a single server and has no central authority that controls transactions on the platform. Here one has full control, and autonomy over your account. A good example is steemit. The steemit platform allow users to chose whatever information to put up on the platform. This new social media platforms stored data on multiple servers. Transactions on the steemit platform is more transparent and can be access by anyone anywhere on the network.

Steemit came about in 2016 as a decentralized social blockchain whereby users are allowed to post content without any control from a central authority. However, this does not mean that users post any trash. There are often terms and agreements to comply with. The medium of payment on users content is by curating.

Centralized social media data is stored on a single server, and has one central authority who has full control over users accounts. Here, the central authority decides who have access to the data making users powerless. For example Facebook and Twitter are centralized social media platforms. On Facebook users are more of products to the central authority.

Differences of Decentralized and Centralized Social Media.

• Steemit as a decentralized social media does not have any central authority that governs users data. With Facebook there is a central authority that governs what happened to users data.
• It is difficult for information to be deleted or edited without the consent of the account user on steemit. On Facebook information censorship is possible. That is users data can be deleted or edited by the central authority without the consent of the user.
• It is difficult to hack data on a decentralized social network such as steemit because data is stored on multiple servers. It is easy to hack centralized social network such as Facebook as data is stored on a single server.
• Steemit has high level of transparency as users have full control of their investments. On Facebook, there is no transparency as users do not have full control over their accounts.
• Plagiarism is more pronounced on decentralized social media platforms such as steemit as there is no central authority to report plagiarized content and it is deleted. On Facebook, plagiarized content can be reported to the central authority to be deleted.
• On steemit as a decentralized social media, users are rewarded on the content they produce. On a centralized social media, users content is not rewarded. Meaning that users do not benefit anything from their content produce.

Which one is the Future of Social Media? Decentralized or Centralized Social Media.
Over the years, social media platforms have witnessed changes with each trying to be the best and bring onboard as many as possible. The creation of Facebook for example gave users the opportunity to connect with friends, and love ones, share videos and photos amongst others. However, users data on Facebook for example was controlled by a central authority. Data could easily be manipulated, deleted or edited by the authority.
Also, the central authority made huge sums from content of users. Users often gain little or nothing from their content.

In recent years, the setbacks of the centralized social media such as Facebook, has led to mass influx in to the decentralized social network such as steemit. This revolution came about on steemit in 2016 whereby users are rewarded with crypto assets for the content shared on the platform. Users are allowed to exchange their earnings with other crypto currencies on the stock market.
Today, steemit has gained more ground in many countries over the world. The number of users keep increasing, and users given full rights over their accounts.

These new developments, has led to improved changes geared towards the freedom of users. This means that the future of social media is in the hands of decentralized social network. This is so because users can freely interact, earn from their content, advertise on their pages, and have full control over their accounts without interference of a central authority.

Even though centralized social media such as Twitter is more pronounced over the world, decentralized social network such as steemit is still to gain popularity. Notwithstanding, the benefits of steemit will make steemit gain more grounds as many discover the benefits of steemit.

How Steemit Decentralization Social Media is best than Twitter and Facebook.
Steemit is good as compared to Twitter as follows:

• On steemit, you can share content of any length. While on Twitter only short sentences and ideas are permitted to be shared.
• On steemit, the use of markdown makes content easy to read and visible. While articles written on Twitter are simple.
• One can earn money on steemit from curated content of users. On Twitter, users do not earn directly on the articles written on the platform.
• Security wise, steemit is more secured as data is stored on multiple servers. Twitter can easily be hacked, and someone else tweet and scam on your account without your consent.
• On steemit, you can read all content uploaded by users. On Twitter, some accounts are protected, making it difficult to read content from such accounts.
  Also, steemit is better than Facebook because of the following:
• Facebook has a central authority that governs the platform. But on steemit, all users have full control of their accounts.
• On Facebook, there are adverts that at times disturbed you navigating on the platform. Steemit does not have those ads that hinders users navigating the platform.
• It is easy to avoid those you do not want to interact with on steemit. On Facebook, it is easy for someone to search your name, and connect with you.

What do you say? How do steemit Social Media Change the lives of Millions of its Users.
Steemit is a blogging site whereby users content is rewarded with steem crypto currency through curation rewards. This has created positive impact in the lives of many households all over the world, and elevate poverty.

For example in Cameroon where I lived especially in the English speaking communities, the level of unemployment is high. Equally, we are in a double crisis situation, that is the COVID-19 pandemic and the Anglophone crisis. Many have lost their source of livelihood , high rates of dependency.

With the introduction of steemit in Cameroon, there has been changed in narratives of poor communities as they can now blog and get paid. I lost my job as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and it is thanks to steemit that I’m able to raise money from content and take care of my children. It has helped us to pay bills. Steemit has made some people to buy cars and build houses. It has turned tenants into potential landlords, and beggars to givers.

Steemit has given an opportunity to stay at home moms to work from home without pressure. It has made many to be bosses.

It has promoted talents through the different communities created in the platform. For example if you are a stay at home mom, Steem women club is there for them to share their stories and be rewarded. If you are a cook, Steem food is there to promote your content.

How can we make money with Steemit Decentralized Social Media.
There are three ways of making money on steemit namely; produce quality content, invest and trade. These will be explained below.

• Quality Content:Users can gain juicy rewards from their content if they post quality content. This attracts high upvotes from curators. To write quality content, one need to master the steemit platform by doing all achievements. The quality of a content makes it outstanding. Master the topic you are writing about, master markdown styles, ask yourself questions, and make sure the write up answers the questions in order to clarify doubts of readers.

• Another way to earn on steemit is by investing. That is instead of constantly withdrawing, invest in Steem power by buying more steemit and power up. The more your Steem power, the more you gain from curators rewards.

• Also, you can earn on Steemit through trading. I will advice that to trade go in with long term investments to avoid high risk with short term trading. High price volatility can make you lost all your investments. So invest wisely and be patient. Your investments will bring in profits.

How to Create Communities on Steemit Social Media
Communities on steemit makes it easier for users to identify where to belong. For example, someone interested in photography, can easily identify the photography community and connect with photographers. There are various steps to follow to create a community on steemit which are as follows using a phone:
Step 1:
Login to your Steem wallet, at the top right hand of your screen, you will see “communities” icon.

Screenshot from Phone

Step 2:
Click on “communities”, a new page opens and entails you enter the title and describe the community. After filling the information on the boxes, click on “next”.
Screenshot from Phone

Note: the characters of the community title should not be more than 18.
Step 3:
Copy and save username and password and click on “create community”.
Screenshot from Phone

Step 4:
Confirm the account creation and this will cost 3 steem. Proceed and click on “OK”. Confirm password by entering either your activate or owner or master keys, and click signin.
Screenshot from Phone

Screenshot from Phone

The community is created and you can now post in the community.

In sum, as more persons get involved with decentralized social media such as steemit, the platform will become more popular in future. Steem will equally have more value when many are holding the currency. Thanks for reading.

Cc: @yousafharoonkhan