Applying Short Term Solutions to Long Term Problems-- and How Such an Approach Dooms Us
My wife shared an interesting article with me this morning, from a magazine we subscribe to. Yes, we actually still get real printed magazines...
In it, the author was going on-- at some length-- about ways to manage and cure stress, and offered a variety of quite viable coping tools and ways to organize yourself. The shortest possible version I can offer is that she proposed the "gamification" of stress and busy-ness, to make it more fun and less stressful.
I admire the intent, but...
Treating Symptoms, not Root Causes
One of my primary takeaways from this article also happens to be the root of one of my greatest frustrations in life: Why is that we-- as a species-- are eternally trying to apply "short term fixes" to complex long term issues?
Cactus Blossom
Of course, I already know the answer to that:
Making real and lasting change to our own lives, to society, to the world... requires lots of persistence and hard work... and it's often not particularly "fun" to embark on such a long and arduous journey; it may even be quite uncomfortable and require us to abandon comfortable old ways of thinking and doing... even if the end result is magnificent.
Sadly, we seem to have little short spans of attention, and we want our "cookie" NOW, dammit!
And so, we tend to reach for these band-aid solutions to so many of our dilemmas... solutions that give our brains' reward system a little shot of "go juice" right now, so it feels like we're "taking action" on an issue... even though we may be doing so simply by "addressing" it, rather than by actually "dealing with" it.
Sadly, nothing ever really changes...
The Facebook Effect
Reeds by the pond
One of the things that has made Facebook so successful is that it feeds many people's "addictions" in a very specific way. Every time we get another "friend" or someone adds a "like" to a post, we get a little tiny "feel good" injection (dopamine), and even though most people don't recognize what's happening as a true addiction, you've nonetheless probably had friends, family or an acquaintance who was constantly checking their feed.
You might be wondering what the hell Facebook has to do with short term solutions... the answer is relatively simple: For the past 10-15 years, we have been "trained" to be less and less tolerant of any kind of "discomfort" or "setbacks" in life... including the kind of discomfort that comes with making radical life changes from the ground up.
Getting back to the aforementioned "cookie" analogy, we want our cookie, dammit!
And most long-term solutions that result in permanent change-- be it to our health, to our communities, to our society-- won't be giving us many cookies! And so, REAL change becomes harder and harder to come by.
Are we doomed?
Pure Genius? The Steemit Effect
Chives in bloom
Is Steemit really any different?
Seems to me it's much the same, in the sense that we get our little "rewards" whenever someone upvotes one of our posts, or we collect another follower, or even we get a comment.
But something is VERY different here: We are also being trained to give.
While Facebook "teaches" us nothing but how to leave an empty thumbs-up, Steemit is a gift or pay-it-forward system of sorts. Part of our little injection of positive vibes come when we visit someone's page and we actually GIVE them two cents, ten cents or even a few dollars with our upvotes.
How is that different? Well, it's training us to do something positive, in a sense, to help someone. It may not be a big thing, but that's not the point. The "genius" in it is that our new "addiction" we're learning is about being helpful, not just about "nothing." And that's a pretty magnificent thing!
Why am I mentioning this?
Because it is actually a gradual, slow, long-term approach to changing a behavior pattern... subtle as it may be, we are learning to feel better through giving, rather than through taking.
What do YOU think? Is the world obsessed with throwing short term "band-aid" solutions at long term problems? Do you think we have grown less tolerant of the "discomfort" of changing our behaviors, at a fundamental level? Do you see Steemit as having the potential to-- very subtly-- making people more giving individuals? Leave a comment-- share your experiences and feedback-- be part of the conversation!
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Published 20170918 16:48 PDT
It's highly profitable for a company to sell you a “short-term” fix to your “long-term” issues because you going have keep coming back for more. Greed is not even the correct word or way they think anymore. They just want all the money and resources.
Now I got distracted. Where is this cooked you speak of?
So, as a gamer, I often stick around in games playing them long past my enjoyment. Simply because of friends. Companies like Facebook who realize that take great advantage of the human emotion in that way and exploit it for everything its worth.
Steemit can’t but help follow the same path all social media follows just like most video games. Until the majority of your friends leave it’s hard to give up on x amount to hours you put into a game, or on a site.
One of the games I played when I was in middle and high school I logged in game time years. YES, YEARS. Granted some of it was from me leaving a trader online to sell things. The only reason I played was that of friends long after I hated everything about that game. Even many of my friends at a time where “this is such junk why we still playing.” Sad truth as we kept playing because it was the only game we could all agree on. Everyone beyond that game just developed different tastes over the years and it was the only thing holding us together. Over time people left and I left after most of my friends and then my remaining friends left after I did. Not talked to any of them since.
Often, we stay for the social aspects... and I appreciate that. I maintained several Yahoo groups LONG after the idea on being part of a Yahoo listserv was about the most obsolete thing you could possibly consider. But we kept going for the people; for the connection. Even though everyone in the group had Facebook... we just knew we wouldn't maintain the connection there.
Steemit is an interesting hybrid because it does seem to stimulate relationship building... this is the first time in probably 10-12 years I've been on a platform where I actually "know" a good 50-60 people well enough that I could type their individual URLs/usernames off the top of my head.
In a sense, this is the gamification of social media we're part of here.
Oh I totally agree. On Facebook, scammers and spammers thrive, and here you can see they have low reputation scores and are being chipped away by the work of others' curation. On Facebook, you can report scammers until you're blue in the face, and they are unlikely to do anything about them at all. That knowledge that your actions have consequences here is a much healthier "feelgood fix," imho. You can actually accomplish something, rather than scream into a void.
As to the larger point, well, I'd be writing my own essay in response, lol, but so much yes. Witness this phenomenon in every corporation that favors short term profits for shareholders over a clean and healthy environment.
One of my favorite things about Steemit is precisely that "the community decides" whether someone provides value or garbage. Or, for that matter, is a scammer... I've seen more than a few of them being on the receiving end of the digital version of "getting run out of town on a rail".
In the US-- especially-- the corporate approach is all about short term gains. The question seems to be "how do we boost THIS quarter's profits, so the share price will go up?"
Yep. They don't give a hoot that they are poisoning the planet or people, as long as that stock price goes up a certain amount.
I think we need to take their keys away ...they're drunk.
We live in a time of instant gratification. If it takes too long, it's just not working! Mindsets need to be altered. As for the concepts of giving: people on Steemit need to be constantly reminded that this is supposed to be a gifting community, not a place to 'get' something. Many are here with the idea that they will get rich quickly here. That idea needs to be gently turned into, 'How can I support this community?'
The "gifting" part does seem to require almost constant reinforcement, or people slide back into their old ways, learned (I'm guessing...) mostly through other social media.
The other week, someone wanted to know how come I got so many comments on my average posts... and almost NONE of them the spammy three worders... well, for one thing, I pretty much reply to all halfway worthy comments, and I upvote most, as well... which-- to my ways of thinking-- is the whole root of what Steemit is about.
Absolutely! I have the same attitude. Show me some sort of interest and involvement and I will up-vote to show my appreciation. It really is quite simple, yet for some reason people seem to hoard their votes as if it will cost them from their own wallets! I LOVE giving away things that don't cost me much. I volunteer my time, I give away some of my garden produce, and I use all of my daily votes here. Why not help others if you can?
You know; I think people are just too busy to even notice what we are doing. They come on here, do their thing and leave. No time to see what others are doing. No time to learn anything. Just get in, finish what they think will get them some money and leave.
I understand that it is easy to get "caught in the groove" here... especially if you are of a "money first" orientation. Which isn't to say that I'm not appreciative for the rewards-- I totally am. However, I am not led by the reward... I am led by the fact that I really enjoy exploring a wide range of topics in writing... and I enjoy the interaction with others who somehow felt inspired to comment on those ideas.
That said, I expect that sort of approach applies to somewhere between 10% and maybe 35% of the Steemit user base. Which is why it's great that we can more or less control what comes through our feeds by only following those whose content interests us.
We live in a world now where we expect things to happen quickly. An email is suppose to arrive in seconds. Fast food is suppose to delivered as soon as you get to the window. Society today trains people to want quick solutions because of this focus on being fast about everything. I'm a pretty patient and chill person so I feel less stress than my husband who does go by that "it needs to happen now" mentality. Maybe that person curing stress should teach people to be patient and zen in your own head and not sweat the small stuff.
To be honest, I sort of miss writing letters-- the whole process of writing something out, sending it off... and then it might be a week or more before a response came. And with that response, a little bit of that person... the knowledge that a certain time and effort went into what I held in my hand... and physical evidence of that person.
We have grown very impatient... but part of it also seems to be the result of us having bought into a "story" that living a good life involves far more content than it once did.
For me, "less of more." I like simplicity. Which-- evidently-- makes me a very bad consumer...
Our society is only a symptom treating society, that's the problem. We are not trained to find any "root cause". And how did we end-up here? Because of the "cremation of care" that have been going on in the western world, the last 3 decades at least. But I think you are right, it is changeable and the model to use could turn out to be steemit, because one has to care to up-vote certain posts instead of other posts.
Great topic
At the very least, Steemit is a cool "social experiment" with the potential to at least influence our patterns of online interaction.
What is interesting to me is that it took me far less time to adopt Steemit as my primary social content venue than it originally did with Facebook... and I think Steemit is also "stickier" (i.e. better retention) than most venues.
This is all very true and well put.
Let us not forget all those clicks and likes that Facebook trains us to do have another "benefit" of keeping the user engaged and on the site....unconsciously watching ads the entire time AND making billions for Zuck and crew.
Ah yes, thanks for the reminder! I do so like that Steemit is ad-free... that;s one of its greatest attributes, IMHO. I don't miss all that blinking garbage and popups and stuff.
I definitely like the giving aspect that steemit offers. While I struggle to find time, I feel even worse when I haven't had time to give back to others here. I always feel better when I can browse through content and give others a small boost of confidence and appreciation for their hard work.
Part of the time factor that's interesting to me is that it also teaches us discernment. I look at some of these people's profiles and it says they are "following 3000 people." What total nonsense! Nobody has a hope in hell of doing that... and in sense, it guides those who care towards "proper usage," namely that you probably have 80-100 (if that!) "core people" you interact with regularly, and everyone else is pretty much out on the periphery, somewhere.
I look at my own stats and-- for example-- I have outgoing votes to 174 unique users over the past two weeks. That's not even HALF the number of people I supposedly "follow," and less than 1/10th of the number of people who follow ME.
I can dig it. Someone pointed out to me though Steemit is still a popularity contest. You aren't paid on quality of content but your level of popularity. It's still hands down better than Facebook.
In essence, ALL social media is a popularity contest... I believe the new and improved term for it is that it's the "Attention Economy." But at least we're following a pattern of giving here... and you have a choice to give your upvote to someone whose work you genuinely like, not just someone "popular."
Goes far beyond that for majority of sites. A lot of it is just bot views. Twitter, Facebook, and even YouTube. I’m sure some of these companies making a killing on “adjusting” their algorithm to priority large international corporations.
The difference between USA and EU trending on YouTube is utter shocking. I’m sure people love music videos and movie trailers done by Hollywood but oh boy least give them a few million views first before propping them up YouTube!
I would not be shocked if majority of the “big” sites where only in top ranking due to bot and other fake traffic.
Oh, I've seen "mystery spikes" in the views on some of my other blogs... and it's almost certainly bot related, even though not initiated by me.
I just don't care, I'm a HUMAN using the SOCIAL Internet.
I had some small spikes on old blogs. Then I realized it was in top search results for whatever reason. People where in fact finding it off google. It’s often made me wonder if someone used it as part of a research paper and enjar is somewhere in a citation line on a paper lol. Then it fell off the rankings and I don't think its gotten a single view since.
Yes indeed. It is more advantageous. Getting that popularity can seem harder than high school though but like I told one of my followers, to me it's just fun. The lack of ads on Steemit are the real reason I enjoy, more than the payouts and all that jazz.
Really is the only way to go about Steemit. Have fun, make friends, and learn new things!
Far too many people focus on what the top 1% is doing. I never view myself as a top 1% in anything so it does not concern me much what they do. Granted a few of them really are great hard working people who have earned it. Then there are some question marks but those people usually don’t last long.
I'm so frustrated by this right now. I'm 100% baffled at why people aren't making the changes we need to make to stop the climate change train wreck. People wanna put a bandaid on it and keep on the same path of destruction.
Can we stop a solar flare? Climate change is a given. It started long before Man came onto the scene and will continue long after Man is gone. It is a cyclical phenomenon that we have absolutely no control over. Don't believe the garbage they are feeding you... its all just to create fear and gain more control and your money. Rather than worry about climate change, I worry about all the poisons being broadcast all over our planet. That's going to harm us a lot sooner than climate change.
Honestly, I care far less about "climate change" as a reason for seeking renewable energy sources than I do about it from the perspective that fossil fuels are dirty, the extraction is dirty and oil-based bi-products also tend to pollute. I want my grandkids to have clean air when they are older.
Climate change happens... there are multiple cycles. Right now (if I understand correctly) we are entering year two of a "mini ice age" that'll last 10-14 years. Undeniably, Co2, Nitrous Oxide and Methane levels are much higher than our historic understanding of them. We're pretty sure that's not a good thing, so why not take steps to not boost them any further?
We should all be concerned about how we leave this planet for our future generations. I'm actually afraid for what kind of world they will inherit.
As for CO2 levels, there seems to be a debate about that. Some say that higher CO2 levels will actually make it easier for plants to grow and plants are feeding the higher life forms of the food chain. We know that the ocean is a major contributor of CO2 and as it warms up, it will release more CO2. It is also said that warmer temperatures are the reason for more CO2 and not the other way round as the fear mongers wish us to believe. I don't know who's telling the truth, but from the things I've seen, I suspect the popular mantra is the lie.
This is one of those things where I end up asking myself “are they using this to distract us from what they really are up to.” They seem too focused on climate and yet they somehow keep failing and things get worse. People seem to forget we have ice ages, super volcanos that are due to erupted and all kinds of environmental disasters that are supposed to happen rather soon.
While I do believe we play some part of it. It’s also just a natural cycle and we should be setting our eyes on much more important things. Like what the heck are they allowing into our drinking water, food, and how controlling advertisement is over some people’s lives.
You got it!
And pollution, alternative energy (because fossil fuels are DIRTY), overpopulation, hunger... the problem eternally seems to be that nobody actually CARES beyond the timeframe called "While I'm in charge." And that comes at a considerable cost to all of humanity.
It's true. I'm honestly at the point now where I'm far more disappointed with people who know and are not acting than I am with the deniers. I've stopped trying to change minds and moved to inspiring action. So many want someone else to fix it. Or install some led light bulbs and call it a day.
Steemit is an example of fundamental life principles. The underlying cryptocurrency Steem. Will reward valuable content creators. Valuable content is decided by the community. Being trained to give value over extended periods without receiving a cookie will take time, but Steemit is very different.
Steemit is relatively "easy" for me because I've been blogging for almost 20 years with pretty much NO reward... so that's pretty much my baseline for creating content. Sure, I've made a dollar or two from Google Adsense and Amazon links... but it's a pittance that has barely paid my annual hosting fees.