Purpose Driven Steem

Steemit is a beautiful place, but it's far from perfect.

I have been on steemit for almost a month now. A very good friend of mine @chrisdavid introduced me to this very exciting platform. He said that Steemit is a good platform for bloggers and it would be very nice to explore since it is still not so popular in the Philippines.

The concept of earning was very enticing to me. Sure enough I signed up and my application was approved October of last year. However, the concept of cryptocurrency was so foreign to me that I kept procrastinating. Finally, last month, I decided to post my first article with #introduceyourself.

Later on, with the patience and guidance of my very good friend, I started to at least have a sense of how the entire Steemit community work. I have also found this very supportive local steemers @steemph.cebu. They help make steemit feel like home.

Soon enough, while exploring further, I start to notice the exasperating things. I always find time to check out on other people's blogs, especially those that are trending. I wanted to learn from those who are doing really well, taking notes as much as I could.

Then I came around some of these post that have huge upvotes and when I clicked them, I found nothing really useful on their contents. That’s when I learned that steemit is prone to abuse. Some people are abusing the bots just so they could earn more. I read other people’s blogs under #abuse and cringe.

At first this made me really frustrated. Here I am joining Steemit thinking that I found a new avenue to improve my writing skills as much as I could. Then I find these people who just downloaded their photos in the internet, put a two sentenced caption and then they are earning more! How is that fair?

Then here goes these commenters who says “nice post” even when they’re clearly not reading anything!
But instead of getting discouraged, this made me rethink my purpose. Why am I here on Steemit anyway? I started looking deep into myself and realized that there is more to Steemit than money.

Finding Meaning

Just like any other social media, Steemit is a tool. A tool that can be used to build or to destroy. The outcome all depends on how pure the intentions are. If before I was enticed to earn, right now I feel like I should have a higher sense of purpose.

When I was new to facebook, I remember how excited I get every time people like my status. It felt rewarding, and I was unaware of the trap that it was building for me. Sooner I kept posting things which I think people would like. I don’t care about the content, all I knew is it felt good to see a huge number of likes.

I know a lot of people were doing the same. They post it for the likes. They flood the page with gore, cheating stories, all for the glory of fame. I saw young girls posting their naked pictures. It seemed okay when it started, none of us has prepared for the real impact of our actions though.

Impact

Studies show that our exposure to certain kinds of messages greatly affects our behavior. If we keep seeing the negative things on the news, we start to see the world as a very chaotic place. We lose sight of the good stuff, we become cautious and skeptical.

But when we see even small good deeds, we start restoring back our faith to humanity. A small act of kindness, a small genuine smile you give to a random stranger, could resonate to a thousand positive stuff.
It becomes a chain reaction.

And that is what I want to create. If there is one thing that I realized, that is the fact that I have the power to start that positive chain reaction in simple ways that I can.

Starting the Chain

“The purpose of life is to contribute in some way to making things better.”
― Robert F. Kennedy

Now, I come up with a personal vow to use Steemit to spread positivity as much as I can. From now on, I am not just blogging because I want to earn, I am not just blogging to be popular. I am blogging on Steemit because I believe in the potential of using this platform in making this world at least a little more loving and happy.

Steemit is far from perfect, but we can all help in making it better.

And in the vast ocean where everyone gets caught in the wars of the whales, I will try to provide the healing. Words are powerful. They can either make or break a person.

I am Janice, and this is my humble contribution to steemit.