Sndbox Summer Camp: Philosophy, Psychology & Sociology - Final Task: Compilation of Task 1, Task 2 and Task 3.
I have done all three tasks of this quest. And for this final one, we are to compile them together into one post. Somehow my 3 tasks flow along with each other and the final task compilation looks like this:
Task One: Newbie onboarding into Steemit
Task Two: Alone we can do little, but together we can achieve much more.
Task Three: So let us live and love, from humanity for the humanity here
A newbie onboarding Steemit where she found out alone she can only do a little, but together with other Steemians she can achieve much more, therefore in this platform, she will live to love, love to live, together with other human for the betterment of the humanity here. 😉
Below are the 3 tasks compile together into one.
Task One: Newbie Onboarding
Click here to link to the Task One's post
I joined Steemit during December 2017 with the knowledge that it was something like blogging, but the difference is you can earn from it. My brother-in-law @danielwong informed my husband to make it known to me, that since I regularly post about my son's medical challenges in Facebook Page, might as well I do via Steemit and I can get income for my son's medical need.
So I ventured into Steemit with this psychology of Facebook-cum-blogging user. I got my account pretty fast - the very next day after I registered. My heart was pumping with excitement witnessing everyone earning alot as much as SBD100 plus per post. I thought - this was incredible. Some earned as much as SBD70 for their very 1st introductory post.
Before I started posting anything, I took few days to actually read through everything (literally 100% everything) in the "Welcome" page as well as "FAQ" page. No doubt, I became information overloaded and no matter how I tried, even read few rounds, I could not understand the difference between SBD, STEEM and STEEM power. I also tried to accustom to new words like "upvote" is "like" in FB, and "resteem" is "share" in FB. Puzzled as I was, I continued with my first introductory post. As a newbie, I was really looking forward for the increase of the value. Not bad for my first post, the total SBD was around 12.
Many questions started to bombard my own thoughts. Then to my shock, I found myself reading again the "Welcome" page. With sleepless nights, I read and studied Steemit as I would have done the same when I studied for exam. I was thrilled to want to know more how Steemit works. Why some people received SBD70 for their intro post and mine was only SBD12. I found out some received even lesser. What was the game? Was there any philosophies behind which cause some to have more, some to have little?
Then I came to know from my brother-in-law that the ecosystem in Steemit is equated with that of an ocean. There are whales, dolphins and small fishes like minnows. I remembered when I knew about this, I was like "What is that? I thought it is just normal social media like Facebook and normal blogging. What got ranking somemore? What have I landed myself into?" By nature, I prefer something simple and straight-forward. So it is not so simple in the world of Steemit. It is not merely philosophy of Facebook and you can't handle Steemit like usual blogging - draft and post.
There must be engagement involved. You blog and you read people's post and upvote them as well. And you are advised to comment people's blog. And all these means curation. New word again. I felt like entering a new school - learning all the philosophy and psychology of Steemit. Next up, I was determined to build followers so I started to read others' post, and I did accordingly - upvote and leave a comment. The cycle repeated for few days. Read people's post, upvoted and commented. At the same time, learned from others different ways to create content. I also tried ideas from others which I followed some whales and really got interested in them, hopefully they noticed you. But somehow, doing that for awhile, I felt somewhat fake. I wanted real thing. Real genuine engagement.
That was how I joined @teammalaysia community led by @bitrocker2020, @kevinwong and the team. Not long after that I got to know more of them like @littlenewthings, @elizacheng, @calebleejl, @zord189, @coloringiship, @angiechin28, @alvinauh, @howtostartablog, @aaronleang, @joannewong (and many more until present). These are awesome Steemians that really seek for the betterment of the community. Since then, whenever I posted a content, the payout would never be zero. I count myself super lucky to be in this community. And it is not just a community whereby you just take without giving, because if you do so, people will know you do not really want to engage. You can't go far if the reason you hang out with people is just for their upvotes. As real as relationship outside, relationship within Steemit ought to be real too. Through #teammalaysia, I found out about @sndbox and its amazing goals.
I got so engrossed in engaging and supporting people that I could upvote almost 20 plus a day. Then I learned about voting power followed by the mystery of bandwidth. Again, it is unlike Facebook, where I can click "like" even for 100 times a day. I somehow like this system in Steemit. It causes you to think and plan when you should upvote and how to space out in between upvotes. Steemit makes you smarter in a way.
After that, I started hearing advice that I should come out with a quality post, and not just few sentences as what we usually did at Facebook. Yet again, I continued to learn from all the tutorials on drafting a post, using dividers to beautify your blog, how to post image and mention source image, how it is of utmost importance you don't steal image just from Google. Then I found out about Unsplash.com, Pexels.com and Pixabay.com. Also, plagiarism is a No-No in Steemit world lest you would be fined by Cheetah or Steemcleaners. I learned all these from another awesome community called @steemitbloggers.
Join us @steemitbloggers
Animation By @zord189
Whoever that aims to succeed in Steemit must really put time and effort to learn all the above. Plus time to engage with communities. It is indeed a commitment and hard work. You don't lay down or you don't work then you will have little. It is as real in the working world as it is here in Steemit. Although I am still not so knowledgeable on crypto trading, I just want to focus on Steemit.
On top of all the above situation, soon I discover there is this flagging war going around here. At first, to me, it is totally out of my mind. I mean, why would you want to jeapordise others by doing so? Can't we just have freedom here to do what we like and do it without any war? I thought it is a decentralised platform where all of our voice worth something? Then pathetically I saw some were flagged until their reputation became negative. Psychologically, it is unsound to me. That made me pondered. Should I continue since it is the philosophy of life I could not endure. But later I found out from my community that I did not need to be fearful because we will have each other's back.
Another thing is that although I was told that I can earn alot and Steemit can be my part time job, later I found out it is advisable to power up your SP too. In other words, to be successful on Steemit, you don't just aim for quick money return. It is like a business whereby you invest into it a sum of money, you boost up your business and the strength of it, and think about the return later on. Wow that is not what I thought and not what I told when I first joined. But that definitely sounds like entrepreneurs in the making. Somehow, eventhough I need the money, after I made my one-time withdrawal, I make a new commitment to power up whenever I can. It took me 4 months to power up to 200SP and my 100% upvote only worth SBD0.02 now. It is indeed "slow and steady win the race" kind of thing.
Just recently I discover all the bots around Steemit to boost your post provided you send some SBD to the bots. Out of curiousity and knowing alot of people used them, I tried using them too, for example @upme, @postpromoter, @boomerang, @qustodian and @appreciator. Until today, the question whether to use or not is still debatable. Personally I think it is a subjective matter. Most importantly, don't spam the bots and use it wisely. I stopped using the bots after using them around 1-2 weeks, simply because I want to grow my account organically. Many still use and I am fine with that as long as they don't spam. Some even use it for good purpose whereby they boost other people's post with bots for charity or fund-raising purpose.
From there on, the notion of giving up on Steemit began to fade away. I am motivated to continue on by hook or by crook even to the extent of a few sleepless nights in a week. I strive to improve. And I commit myself to engage with the communities as much as I can. Later on, I joined few more awesome communities like @qurator, @minnowsupport and @thesteemengine. In my opinion, if you first join and you do not have a specific nation community to be part of, you must join @minnowsupport (Link to PAL - Peace, Abundance, Liberty Discord Channel at https://discord.gg/jajE32A). There, minnows get support from each other to boost you up so you do not easily give up and end Steemit.
Did I just mention 'Discord'? Yes, aside from Steem Chat, they are many communities here in Steemit found in Discord. Discord is an app designed to help gamers talk to each other in real time. It is widely used among different communities here in Steemit for Steemians to chat with each other. There, we engage, we grow, we promote out posts, we support other posts and we get to know one another more.
Learning curve in Steemit seems unending. Just when I know I know quite on Steemit, then there comes dsound, dtube, dmania, busy.org, steepshot, zappl and dlive. There are just too many to learn here.
Additionally, I am fascinated by the dedication of panel of curators from @ocd and @curie that seek to search and support awesome contents that are not noticeable by people due to being drown into the ocean by so many floating posts around. I was featured 2 times in @ocd and I could not be more grateful.
Indeed, Steemit is not for the faint-hearted, not for those who easily give up. You cannot just come and try one month and conclude that you have failed or Steemit has failed to make people successful. You cannot just come in and blame that the whales are not helpful enough. Be a whale and you will know the responsibilities you need to carry upon your shoulder. You cannot come and just envy those who did well and then you left thinking that Steemit is not for you. You keep on swimming and keep on swimming. By the way, 4 months here and I am still a plankton, looking forward to the day I will be officially a minnow. As of now, just enjoy the ride here in this ocean - I mean, Steemit. Do not give up - yet! I agreed with the earlier slogan "Come for the rewards, stay for the community".
Task Two: Alone we can do little, together we can achieve much more.
Click here to go to the Task Two's post
In task two of this quest by @guyfawkes4-20 and @anomadsoul, we are to analyse a real situation in real life. I will take myself as the specimen for this analysis. 😉 It will be flowing with one of my philosophies of life, which is stated above in the header.
My background
Since young, I was generally a shy and timid girl. I did not talk much except among my siblings, closer relatives and a few close friends. If you put me in an entirely new place and new people, I would be extremely quiet.
While growing up, I did not know what happened but I was led to believe that I could handle things by myself. Thus, I often prefer to finish a project by myself or study for exam by myself instead of doing it in a group. It was kind of extreme that as young as 9 years old, I would try to 'heal' myself when I fell ill by becoming my own doctor without telling my parents - I would sneak into the kitchen while they were asleep to search for medicines to administer myself. Call it independent or stubborn - it did not matter to me. Hence, I gradually became integrated into the notion of 'doing it all by myself so that I did not need to trouble other people for help'. I did not mind to help people but I found it difficult to ask for help.
However, as I grew up into adolescent and carried upon me more responsibilities, I started to realise I could not live on my own without other people's help and support I learned it the hard way when once I was a Junior Jaycee's President, trying to finish a project by myself. In the end, I burned so much midnight oil that it jeapordized my health. My mum taught me to learn to be daring to delegate jobs and to remind me that people were generally kind and helpful if we asked.
Since then, I realised my setback and aimed to improve. I joined several groups in school like Red Crescent Society, Prefect Community, Lion Club, English debate Team and Science Club to learn teamwork and to dare myself to mix with different groups of people and to be bold in the togetherness.
Indeed, alone we can do little, together we can achieve much more. ~Jadeline
Also,
No man is an island. Everyone is part of a some groups or communities. ~John Donne
The above two quotes become very essential philosophies of my life, and they are psychologically and sociologically correlated too since it involves human's relationship.
Before Steemit
As a result of the learning, pruning and trimming process while growing up, now as an adult, I find no challenge in mingling with people eventhough I consider myself as an introvert. I have no problem being a leader or being a follower. Based on what position I am assigned to, I will adapt and work and blend accordingly. On the side note, I am still afraid of stage or being in the limelight despite the fact that if given no choice, I will still brave myself to face the crowd. Oh yes, I just did a personality test inspired by @zord189, @heartscally and @happycrazycon to confirm I am towards the introvert spectrum.
Click here if you are interested to view my result - ISFJ personality.. And click here if you want find out your personality.
All these qualities help me alot in my pursuit to be a pastor as we involved alot in community work, people-related field as you lead the youths or as you help the poor and needy, even in helping the strong and wealthy.
However life took a turn after I gave birth to my second son whom had a deadly congenital condition called Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH). Good news is he survived and still blooming today despite is battling its complication. You can read more about CDH here as I will not elaborate it and just focus on the quest.
His condition forced me to quit everything to focus on him. In his 1st year of life, everything was delicate as he barely had any right lung. He was on breathing machine and tube-fed 24/7 and therefore we stayed at home 24/7 except hospital appointment. Living in this lifestyle for almost 2 years made me slowly dwindled to the non-social life. We were advised not to bring him out at all as he could not afford to be infected at all. I was made to accept the fact that social life will be almost non-existence in this kind of lifestyle. I also could not work anymore because of him. Psychologically, I have to learn to be strong and to be okay. Is it worthwhile? Yes! Because I believe when he is better years down the road I can fly again.
Now on Steemit
Then, I was introduced into crypto environment named Steemit. It is a 'life-saver' to me. What I thought could be merely blogging turned out to be sociollogically impactful . Here, once again I rekindle my philosophy of life whereby alone you can do little, together you can achieve much more. Not only that, I am sociollogically intregrated almost to different part of the world - and that is so fantastic. Some communities that I am in now like @teammalaysia, @steemitbloggers, @qurator, @thesteemengine, @mywomen and @steemmamas only cause you to stretch and expand psychologically, never shrink.
Here in Steemit, besides posting good contents to inspire people, you get to be inspired and motivated by others too. You blog and you grow. You engage and you grow. I started Steemit to earn side income, but now I stay for the communities, for the Steemit social life. Many times, again and again, fellow Steemians never fail to integrate, to communicate, to support, to love and to spread positivity. Yes, there bound to be some negative ones around, but the good undeniably outnumber the bad. I was socially depleted for some time, and here I bounce back up again. How people work together here is amazing. Top notch teamwork, I would say. And many become real life friends. Online, they are friends. Offline in the real world, they are friends. Me too, I have made alot of friends, both locals and internationals.
Due to the fact we do not conform to the philosophy of parasitic existence such as "I upvote you, you upvote me" or "Follow for a follow back", everyone here has to learn to be socially active and genuine in their relationship building. The fact that you don't put in effort, you don't get the results here pushes you to really think through are you psychologically fit enough to stay. And if you think you can, commit to it - to the communities here - together building the platform - all win together. If not, then take deep thoughts to plan where should you improve, while learning from one another.
My son still has his bouts of health challenge although is improving day by day, and I still have my bouts of worry and concern and fear too. But this crypto world has proved to me that I can stay through, with the closely knitted relationship and support from the communities. Here, you will never be lack of ideas or knowledge. It can even be a positive competitive environment where we spur one another to do better.
Indeed, there are few essences I found out about human, irregardless of race or ranking:
- Human need acceptance.
- Human need recognition.
- Human need appreciation.
- Human need support.
- Human need love.
- Human need one another.
- Human grow better in togetherness.
- Human become creative, bold and imaginative when they co-exist.
I am shy and timid, but here I am daring to showcase my writing, my recipe, my culture, my life, my philosophy of life, my art and my photography. Moreover, you are pushed to step up to introduce yourself to the world in your very first post. There is not a single day passes by without philosophically challenged, psychologically strengthened and sociollogically orchestrated. All blended into one in this crypto world - the blockchain. On top of that, here you get to taste the 8 essences I mentioned above.
Again,
Indeed, alone we can do little, together we can achieve much more. ~Jadeline
No man is an island. Everyone is part of a some groups or communities. ~John Donne
Task Three - Life and Love : From Human, For Humanity
Click here to go directly to task three's post
My philosophical journey of life began when I joined Ministry Training Institute in the pursuit of serving God and community full-time. The more I studied the Word of life, the more I relearn and unlearn about many things in life. I learned to love, to serve, to show kindness and empathy to the people, and to walk the second mile if it is appropriate and safe.
We had hands-on training where we were sent out to the community to love them and to serve them. I had the privilege to mingle with the young and the old, the rich and the poor, the good and the bad, as well as the healthy and the sick. Experiencing a glimpse of each walk of life, I discover the beauty of life plus the mystery and misery of life. I also realise at the core of human being, there is always the yearning for love. Having the opportunity to minister to the broken and oppressed, I learn to identify that beyond every hurt and pain and crime, lies the hidden broken bridge of love.
Based on this truth, eventhough some of my friends have given up hope on humanity, I have high hope on humanity and their life with their love per se. While some human beings keep on displaying hatred and anger, there are many more who never stop demonstrating love, compassion and kindness.
Every life begins with love. You and I are here because of a couple, out of love, have decided to come together in intimacy to bring us forth in the form of ovum and sperm. Even if you are unplanned or the woman was actually not ready to conceive, still, it is because of love, you exist. Therefore, to me, everyone is capable of exhibiting love and beauty in their own way. No one is to be exempted from abundant and honorable life. I always advise those who have given up hope on life and themselves, that he or she is born for a purpose, that he is born for such a time as this, that he or she is already a winner since the creation of life, because out of the millions or billions of sperm, he or she is chosen to fuse with the ovum. On this account, I say no one is a mistake. No one!
Although there is a popular phrase that says one thing that is constant is change. But there is one constant that does not change which is we all start our life as a baby and then we grow old, eventually pass on. No one can avoid death no matter how careful we are in taking care of our health or safety. For this reason, we must embrace our life. Live it to the fullest and live it well to end it well. Easier said than done, I know. But it is feasible.
Earlier on, in Task 2 of this quest, I quoted this - no man is an island. Besides embracing life and love, we ought to extend this to other people as well. Because it is pointless to just live life for yourself and for your own gain, without thinking of the success of others. What is the profit of you gaining the whole world but losing relationship? Then you will be back to square one - lonely, pathetic one-man show in the island - with one and only benefit - no one will complain about you. But flip the coin over, you will never get the satisfaction of people's appraisal and compliments too. You perform by yourself and there is only one spectator to cheer you on - YOU and YOU only.
On this ground, I like to share my another philosophy of life, which is this - the best and the most meaningful life is one who lays down to serve one another. Besides learning this from Jesus, I also learn from other philosophers as well. Let me share a few here with you:
"Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love." ― Martin Luther King Jr.
"Only a life lived in the service to others is worth living."― Albert Einstein
"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."― Mahatma Gandhi
"The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity."― Leo Tolstoy
"If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other."― Mother Teresa
Since we are here together on earth, we should walk alongside one another. Whether we like it or not, we share the same earth and the same livelihood. What affects the north will eventually has its ripple effect on the south. We all are together in life, so why not make it a point to serve humanity with love and compassion? The oneness in humanity will definitely benefit the whole system.
Therefore, no matter what happens, I will not lose hope on humanity. God sent His only begotten son Jesus to save humankind, this only shows how significant we are. No matter how many challenges that try to beat me down, I know I will not be crushed because I still have a mission here on earth, to love and to serve humankind in my own way, with God's strength. You are not left out in this great service too.
"There is no higher religion than human service. To work for the common good is the greatest creed."
― Woodrow Wilson
And since we all have one common ground, we are all Steemians, we all can, in our own way, apply this beautiful philosophy of life. Not only will it benefit the community and the ecosystem here, it will benefit your soul too. So far the environment here on Steemit with so many awesome communities around only show me humanity is full of love and hope. They are beautifully intertwined that we should not take for granted but participate together to show love and support.
So this led to me to have desire to be part of @sndbox.
All quotes are taken from quotabulary.com
Why I want to be part of @sndbox?
I found out about @sndbox while I am one and half months here via @teammalaysia members as a couple of them are @sndbox members.
Once I dive more into their mission and goals, I immediately love it. Although I doubted I could be part of it due to my life's challenges with my CDH son and that means sometimes time factor can be my greatest challenge in the event of if he needs to be admitted to hospital due to unforeseen circumstances.
I want to be part of @sndbox due to their mission which is very community-based and the way they cover different areas simply means they never leave anyone out, whether the person is more into photography, or art, or music, or culture, or science, or philosophy, or education and etc, @sndbox has all sorts of creativity and field sorted out. My husband is an entrepreneur so once I realise @sndbox is very entrepreneurs-based, immediately it is like another reason I wish to be part of it.
Our goal is to create a supportive environment where an artist, architect, musician, curator, educator, entrepreneur, non-profit, or community organizer can explore, innovate and play all while being rewarded for sharing their craft.~@sndbox
Not only that, I desire to learn more from @sndbox how they do things, and to be coached continuously to come out with great content to benefit this platform, eventually to grow from plankton to minnow and then to dolphin.
Later on, I found out if the content is of good quality, @sndbox will give big upvote. And I went "WOW!!!! I want to be part of it!!!" I am just being honest. No one will join Steemit with "no-I-do-not-need-high-upvote"'s mentality. You have higher payout, you have higher curation influence. Alternatively, I want to benefit many people by my big upvote too. I love upvoting people's post, in fact I need to exercise self-control due to Voting Power issue.
While chasing this dream, I will strive to improve in ways I know best for now, to benefit the community as a whole. Steem on.
Thank you once again to @guyfawkes4-20, @anomadsoul and @sndbox for this quest, and for reading all the posts of the quest.
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Join us @steemitbloggers
Animation By @zord189
wow... that's really a post that can form a small testimonial booklet for you to promote Steemit and your life journey!
I can resonate with you on the "I always do everything myself" side hence when I was younger, like you, I tend to keep a lot of things to myself.
Which is quite a 180 deg change. haha.
It is really a great joy to see how #teammalaysia members grow and flourish in Steemit, beside the usual blog and earn mindset.
I personally truly hope that I can see more people adapt to this mindset; and who knows? Maybe the world will turn into a much better place in the most unusual manner through the blockchain technology
upvoted and resteemed
Looks like we have another thing in common. ;)
Yes I still cannot believe how much the team has grown in these few months. It is amazing. Oh yes, who knows maybe the world will be at better state via blockchain.
Thank you for the upvote and resteem, and continuous suppport @littlenewthings.
Most welcome! And we are still waiting for your doodling message for Debbie.
oh yes definitely will do it after i settle everything. Jayden is not feeling so well so he skipped school, I handle him 1st. ;p
Oh no! I hope little Jayden is all right! This big brother has been very brave and strong for his little brother and mummy.
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STOPHopefully you'll get in sndbox.. They'll be lucky to have you as a member!
This is so awesome compilation of all of your great posts altogether @iamjadeline. You are such an awesome writer, @iamjadeline!!! Huge upvotes coming your way! :)
oh my! super overwhelming. in a good way ;) you totally deserve it. all the best! :)
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