SECS 8 Week 4: The mental health of a content creator

This is an exciting topic for us content creators on the steemit platform as an example. How do we manage our health as content creators and stay active on the forum? This contest has caught my attention given that some of us jump into the steemit platform and forget about our health. I have read posts on the platform where you hear content creators complaining about one health challenge.

1- How do you feel when creating content? Is it a pleasant experience for you or, on the contrary, does it generate anxiety and discouragement?

The feeling comes after the motive for creating the content, what is your reason for creating the content? What are you creating the content for? My feeling has grown in stages on the steemit platform as creating content concerns. I didn't know about others before joining steemit. I was on other social media platforms where I share content. Few of the content belongs to me, while others were copied and pasted with no concern if it was plagiarized or not. I was so excited doing the act, I can remember searching on the internet to find what I will post or taking a picture and thinking about the wise saying I will attach to it. So those were my days before finally deciding to create an account on steemit. Steemit is my first blogging social platform.

I joined steemit during the season 2 diary game. The feeling I had was towards the prizes awarded to the winners. I can remember at the end, none of my diary game posts was voted and I called the attention of SC01, LOL. That was when I got my first vote from the steemit team, which motivated me to create more content on the steemit platform. At this point, my interest was the vote. Given that the votes are monetized, I had huge anxiety to create more and getting votes.

As I mentioned above, after my hunt for votes. I had the chance to claim the educational ladder, and I got to learn a lot and understood more about the platform. Now my motive moves from votes to reputation. So, I generated content in most communities to build a relationship and at the same time get votes to build my reputation. My target was to have a reputation of 70, so my anxiety was high to get that target.

So, because of the objectives I had. I had a pleasant experience generating content so as to achieve my objectives. As of now, steemit is my most active social media platform.

2- Have you ever felt mentally exhausted by generating content on a daily basis? Tell us about your experience.

Yeah, I have felt mentally exhausted from creating content on a daily basis. Note that steemit is not a micro social media platform, it is a blogging social platform with the proof of brain concept. So, generating content for a blogging platform on a daily basis is demanding and exhausting for the human brain. Again, I have an off-chain activity to run, which takes about 8 hours of my day. So, coming back and making sure to create content is not an easy task. I can remember the early day of the crypto academy, where I will come back at night and make sure I complete a course. During that period, I would sleep for 3 hours a day, and not long after that I felt sick. That was when I learned one more thing, being active on the platform is not about following votes.

3- What do you feel when your content is not valued as you expect it to be? Does this affect you mentally?

Interesting point. At first, I used to have a bad feeling when my content was not valued as I expected. But then again, I have come to ask myself. What was the intention behind the content? What do we mean by value, many will go for votes to mean your content is being valued. I have learned from many pieces on the steemit platform that my content on the platform is to stay active and keep the platform trend. In one of my posts, I call most of the authors to power down to stay active. Most of them feel their content will not be valuable because they are powering it down. I don’t see it that way, what about keeping the number of active users? Going dormant, will drop the level of the platform and will play over your mental health. I know of content creators who have confessed how much energy they had to put together to come back on the platform.

So, it doesn’t affect me mentally like before anymore. I think I have gotten to the level where I don’t look at votes to be the measurement of content value. What is the impact of your content on the platform as a whole? It is either you sharing your content to stay active and contribute to the growth of the platform or you are hunting for votes. Trying to stay active, your mental health is safe. But are you going for votes which is no guarantee, I cry for your mental health LOL.

4- What would be your recommendations for a content creator to keep a healthy mind?

First, what is your motive, you need to know what you want. Your health is important in every sector of life, and content creation is not an exception. I will keep using steemit as an example. When you keep having an eye on the votes you become blind and not smart on the platform. Your mental health is at risk, I will recommend, you look at the platform like any other platform. Balance your activities and give time for content creation.

Remember content creation has to do with working the brain, and if the shutdown. It will not be that easy to recover, so eating well helps replenish the brain for energy. I don’t have to go ahead to list what we have to eat, bottom line is every content creator needs to eat well and rest well.

Taking some time off can be very helpful for a content creator, to relax, and go on a trip. Stay away from your laptop, phone, and notebook. Have just your camera with you, to take a capture of moments.

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I will use this opportunity to invite @roomi, @okere-blessing, @nancy0

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Cheers
@fombae