Why Steem is Addicitive

in #psychology8 years ago

I realised recently what makes Steem so addictive: It provides a natural variable reward schedule. 

Basically, when writing a post, there is a possibility of a large reward, and those occur just often enough to keep us writing, and the unpredictability keeps us on our toes. The smaller rewards occur far more often, which also serves to reinforce our addiction.

Steem functions very similarly to a slot machine in terms of its reward schedule.

So, was this an intentional design aim, or did it happen by accident?

Sort:  

You write a post because you have something to write about, or you're just fishing something?

Why could it not be both? I find I rarely do anything for a single reason.

If one reason prevails, another one suffers.

Aha, but what if I manage to achieve the zen of balanced reasons?

This is theoretically possible, but seriously counting on it is a kind of a casino game.

I don't find Steemit any more addictive than Reddit, personally. But for people into gamification of things, it's got the right hooks. I'm not sure if it's because it's real money or not though - I find plenty of people hopelessly addicted to F2P or MOBA games even when the money is virtual.

Personally, I do find it far more addictive than Reddit. Might be because I am more attached to it, having started with Steem a couple of months ago, when it was still young.

I think so. You were there at its very infancy - there's bound to be an emotional attachment. I wish I was here then to!

Ah, the youth of today! In my day, we had no payouts at all, we had to look at the values underneath the posts and pretend it was real money!

You have no idea how it was in times of old! (times of old in this case being about two months)

In my day, there were no numbers at all!

Also, we had to blog in the snow... Backwards!

i play too much moba and waste too much time in forums and such. Maybe this will be more productive???

Well, at least here you can make some real cash.

i am here mostly hunting next big post. Get some POWER. =D
It is like playing a game between work brake. I think they gamified it well.

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.17
TRX 0.13
JST 0.027
BTC 62427.05
ETH 2721.95
USDT 1.00
SBD 2.56