Showcase April - Nomad rants] - The Generation of Participation Awards | How Entitlement reached Steemit
I was born in 1988. By definition I am a millenial.
According to every adult around me while I was growing up, I can be whatever I want if I try hard enough, besides I am the most handsome, inteligent and capable kid they´ve ever seen and anyone who says otherwise, it is just because they are jealous and don´t want me to succeed. I am destined to be the best in whatever I decide to be and I just need to try hard enough and dedicate myself to become who I want to be, no matter my abilities, personality or capabilities.
And so is every other kid, according to the adults around him/her while growing up.
You see, we were told we deserve everything just for being ourselves and thus, the culture of entitlement was born. Let me tell you a quick story. Don´t worry, I believe it is entertaining:
I was born in a middle class mexican family - this part is important, I´m not bragging about my social status back then, the middle of the pyramid is where the progressive ideas are born-, and every summer my parents could afford to send me to a summer camp. A summer camp divided in teams according to your age and sex. Every day, each team was awarded participation points depending on their behaviour or achievements as a team and, at the end of the summer camp, the team with the most point was the winner team. That year, 2000, my team won. We were given T-shirts labeled "1st place - Best Team". But the other teams, were also given T-shirts, the same model, the same colors, the same everything, only that those were labeled "Best Team".
I was 12 years old when I realized the social implications and the agenda behind this award system, and even though I was too young to understand the probable consequences of rewarding everyone, I knew something was wrong with it. I had never seen it before and I didn´t quite understood the reasons.
I mean, at 12 you only end up wondering "whats the point of making an effort and trying your best to excel, if in the end every team is getting the same prize? Where is the award for being the very best team among 11 other teams?
Of course, the other 11 teams were happy for also getting a shirt and I am sure there were more positive memories from those 11 team members, than negative memories from my team members.
We felt tricked. Oh yeah, I wasn´t the only one feeling like all of our effort and sweat and discipline throughout all the camp was unrecognised and not valued at all.
I was raised in a meritocracy school system where the good students got picked to be part of the ceremonies, where there was actually a competition among 15-20 students (out of 40) per class room to see who could get the best grades; we were competing to see who was the best at football, basketball, tae-kwon-do etc.
The competition was real and even though our parents already had the "you deserve everything, my sweet child" chip on them, the school didn´t. I am grateful for this because it taught me how to earn what I wanted, not just ask for it.
I was part of that generation growing up, but my dad always made me earn everything. I had to work for my dad for 6 months - doing petty stuff obviously - at 10 years old to buy by myself the PS1 (Of course he bought it for me, but I "earned it" through my work); my first cellphone was paid by me by waiting tables at 16 years old and so on. My dad always made me work whenever I wanted something out of what his obligations as father meant and I can safely say that most of my grade bros were the same at some level.
But I was a witness of how this changed with younger generations. The school became soft, bending to the students (or the parents) crazy requests and I could see how this "participation awards" started to become a trend wherever I went.
I was 21 years old when I realized that terms like meritocracy were frowned upon; I could see how universities started to admit everyone depending on other factors rather than knowledge and grades; I was there to see how my ex teachers had to pass students to fill a % quota; I was there when casual bullying became harrasment because kids can´t handle it.
But also, it has already reached Steemit
I am not going to deny it. I fell entitled sometimes. I feel like I deserve stuff just because I am me and because I think I am the coolest shit around. But I try to avoid it, I try to stop myself when I think my posts should get more. I go the extra mile when I find myself valuing my work more than the work of others, or undermining their effort while comparing it to mine.
But that also doesn´t mean shit. Steemit is not made up by well wishers and participation awards. Everything on this social experiment called Steemit is earned, nothing is given and no one will give you a vote just because of your pretty face (well, almost). We don´t deserve votes just because it took us 4 hours to make a post.
We don´t deserve a $500 payout post just because WE believe it is worth that. This is a meritocracy and rewards and merit goes where rewards and merit are deserved. No one is going to give you for free anything, you have to earn it.
I am one the few Steemians with a big chunk of SP who are still focused in spreading the votes and to give rewards where I think where they are deserved. But this participation award mindset doesn´t work with me. Just because you tell me you spent 17 hours doing a post or because you tell me you are giving your rewards to charity, doesn´t mean I will vote on your post. I am sorry if this statement is not what you expected of me.
You can look at my voting behaviour, you can ask around - I bet you know someone who knows me - I vote on a lot of people´s posts and I try to spread the VP as far as I can, but I will bet you my ass, I only vote on posts that deserve the vote.
As you may know, I organized a Contest where more than a couple of hundred Steemians joined...
First of all, thank you, you rock and without you these contests wouldn´t be what they are and for that I tell you "thank you". Second, yeah me and @eveuncovered opened all of them and we commented on some, she voted on some posts, I voted on a large percentage of them and we both selected the winners. Third, I never said I would vote on every entry because last time, my Voting Power wasn´t enough to reward everyone but I still tried to do it, to reward most posts that I considered - from my own point of view - that deserved it.
But still, I got comments like this one (paraphrasing because the comment was long as hell):
It is a pity that original content is not being supported because time or VP is "not enough". I will continue to write even if I don´t get votes just because I can support my posts with my SBD (Bidbots). Everyone who joined the contest and didn´t get a comment or a vote, is being disrespected and it only speaks about a lack of seriousness. This only clarifies that Steemit is a great idea, but in the end those with SP are not spreading it. If you couldn´t guarantee the vote, you must have said it. The contest lacked a good promotion, a lot of great entries were left with a 0 payout. You represent one of the best communities there is, but definitely there are more $ interests in making the contest posts, than to reward the entries. Thanks for your intentions, but I can´t eat with that. Mi passion is to write, and you have disrespected me as a participant. Regards
Can you see the entitlement here? Can you see the Participation award mindset?
I never said I would vote on every entry - as you may understand, reading them takes a long time, to comment on every post would take ages and to vote on every one would be impossible - and yet you can search the tag, a very big percentage of the entries were voted by me or Eve, nominated for OCD and voted by curie. Those who had already a significant pending payout were skipped by me, but only to spread the VP among other entries.
And yet, this user feels disrespected because I didn´t vote nor comment, and feels like I should have announced I wouldn´t be able to vote on every entry.
Since when, we join contests for the vote of the person who organizes it, rather than to try and win the prize?
Is this user joining my contests because he finds them amusing, because he wants to win or just because he just wants a participation award?
So, according to this guy, I am obligued by definition to vote on every entry of the contest and, also according to him, he is entitled to my vote just for joining!
I actually read the post, I thought it deserved a vote but my VP was low - and as you know, I am very committed with the communities and projects I am part of so I have to keep in mind my VP % - and I decided to not vote on it and just copy the link and paste it in the discord channel I have with myself where I type everything I need to remember, I put it among the possible winners. He didn´t win and I got that comment which wasn´t the only one aimed to the same subject, and inspired this post.
I have felt entitled some times, but I try to avoid it. I strongly believe that we, as steemians, should avoid it at all costs. We are not entitled to anything, whales don´t have to vote on our posts, other fellow steemians are not under the obligation of commenting on our posts, no one is obligued to engage with us.
Nothing is given, everything is earned, let´s erase the Participation award mindset from our brains.
This post was originally posted in April 2018 and it's part of my initiative called showcase April, where I'll post the best content I've done over the past three years