Why I like Steemit

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When I was a teenager in Germany a long, long time ago, I met a boy who came from England and the two of us got high together
... not on drugs mind you, but on words.
We talked endlessly about heaven and earth, and everything in between, speculating wildly about the deepest realms of the soul and the farthest ones of the universe, about current politics and wider much older philosophies. We listened to each other and together we spun a web of thoughts and ideas just for the pure joy of doing so. It was exhilarating.
It lasted for three weeks and then my friend moved on. He was on his way to India. We didn't stay in contact.
Since then I've never met anyone with whom I could have a similar experience. The people around me are matter of fact. They're not much for speculating about anything. They accept the world as it is presented to us and religion as it is taught.
And if I wanted to be accepted I had to do the same.
Since the events of 9/11 I have started to question many things, but I rarely discussed my thoughts with others and when I tried it online I rarely got feedback.
Here on steemit I do get it and that's extremely satisfying.
But I also get exposed to a far wider range of ideas and unique ways of writing than I've gotten ever before.
It has been only a bit over a month since I started on steemit. I found the site on the recommendation of @corbett .
What I considered fascinating then and still do now, is the idea of combining the content creation of social media with money creation. I had heard about Bitcoin and how this currency is created (or mined) via computer algorithms. And that's why these virtual coins are rare enough to become a safe haven to store and transfer value, a kind of substitute for physical gold, since like gold, it cannot be created at will.
I don't like gold very much, since it easily can be horded by the rich and powerful, creating needless scarcity, deflation and poverty, just like fiat currency can create needless inflation and loss of value.
And so steem could become a real alternative one day. Of course, it is in its beta testing phase still and things are changing constantly.
For the time being I still doubt that I will ever make significant money out of posting here, but for me that's not the main attraction. Steemit gave me the courage to write again and a motivation to read on a vast variety of topics.
My favorite part is the comment section, that we are encouraged to give each other feedback and that most of us here are kind with each other and polite.
I love it to learn something new every day about different forms of technology. I have for instance now a small inkling of how a blockchain works or encryption and what a hash is.
And I love it, when once in a while I can get into a real discussion about ideas with somebody whose post I answer as I did with @afrog recently, or when I read the superbly well-written stories and poems of some of my favorite authors here and get actually to talk to them and they answer, or when I delve into the strange world of @riskdebonair 's "Dreamscapes and Heartaches".
And I have a feeling that I'm getting high again, high on words.