100 days & 1,000 followers later - The wake up call I had today
This is not a congratulatory or happy post about reaching a milestone. I am done with those. Of course you can keep doing them! I don´t think it is wrong to get excited about achieving something and I think your hard work and effort should be rewarded and cherished, so if you make a post about it, it is ok and if I find it I will upvote it.
Even so, I won´t write celebratory posts anymore.
You know how Facebook makes you depressed? Well if you don´t want to read the article I´ll give you the tl;dr:
When you surf Facebook or other social media you only see what people wants you to see and wants to share with the world. You only see positivity (in most cases, we all have the couple who posts about their break-ups every now and then), happiness, photos of your friends being cheerful etc. You only see the good things, and you compare them with your whole life, which as you know, has ups and downs. And then you become sad and think your life is not as great, which is not true, every other person has ups and downs they just don´t show them on social media. But our brain is not trained to see through that, we just feel our lives are not as great as others...
You see, the kind of posts we see everyday about reaching milestones are great, they show other users there is plausible growth and you can get there eventually, I like them better when they include a small treat or even a big prize (I just won one by the way, thank you @aussiesteem) but - yeah, there is always a but, i wish it was a butt though - I think, and this is only my opinion, they do more harm than good.
Steemit is not the American dream
I try to engage via discord or even commenting with some new users to see the mentality of people arriving to steemit.com and for the past three months - myself included at some point - I´ve seen a lot of people that think of steemit as the gateway for an early retirement, financial independence, resigning their job or being a digital nomad among other ideas.
And why shouldn´t they think this way?
A friend told them or maybe they overheard someone saying this website literaly pays you to post, like a facebook but with real money, all you have to do is sign up, prove you are not a bot and you are good to go.
From the moment they start browsing all they see is posts worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars, celebrations posts about reaching X number of followers, they hear rumors about this girl who made 15,000 for one post while traveling; all they see and read is succesfull stories - or maybe just ideas of succes -.
Of course they are going to think joining here was the best decision ever and all of their dreams will come true next week.
But then reality hits them hard in the face
The truth is, steemit can only be a full time job for some people. I´ve managed to travel with only steem earnings but it has been a real struggle and that is not the subject I want to address today.
Their first posts make a few bucks because they used the intro tag - so they keep using it until someone flags them or warns them - but as time goes by, their posts make the usual rewards, from 0.50 to $2 and that is how it should be.
Steemit is not a magic lamp you can just rub and all your wishes will come true.
In order to achieve something we have to engage, commit, post a lot, comment a lot more, joing a community, use the chat servers to reach other people, actively participate in projects etc. There is a lot to do, it is like having another life and a lot of people dedicate more hours to this virtual life than to real life (which is fine), I think I dedicate 4 hours everyday to Steemit related stuff.
The sad part is, when this reality check comes, a lot of people get discouraged and stop blogging or abandon the platform
And this could be mainly our fault. By posting our achievements - which I repeat, it is fine if you want to do it, I am just questioning the consequences of such posts - we are showing the newbies and the not so newbies, that we just reached a milestone, but we don´t mention the hard work and effort behind conquering that milestone. We only mention the good stuff, the pleasant areas. We do not say we spend 6 hours chatting via discord or steemit.chat or that we comment on 30+ posts every day etc.
This creates an imaginary bubble or crystal palace which new users believe to be true, which in some cases it is, but they think it will come easily and without effort, which it never does.
It is great that users notice one can actually have success here, I just don´t think this kind of posts are the way to show it.
Therefore, I am done making celebratory milestone reaching posts. It is ok if you do it, we all deserve to celebrate our success and to do it how we please, I just hope this text made you think a bit about the message we send in these posts... maybe include in the post the work you have to put in order to reach the milestone?
I don´t know, that one is up to you.
Interesting and thoughtful post... so much I could say about this; I have written a couple of "milestone posts" here but I don't really care that much... I'm more about the content and the engagement. Yesterday, I saw a post by @lukestokes that made some sense to me... using occasional posts more as a form of "permanent record" of where we are, because the blockchain records in perpetuity (supposedly). And what struck me was his words "this post is not for YOU."
Maybe the more valid milestones live inside us... in terms of how many lives we touched; how many discouraged bloggers did we give a small lift to that made them want to stay.
It is part of the human condition (or so it seems) to assume grand things when there is even a whisker of a hope that we might reduce the daily grind that is life. We see the chance that (realistically speaking) might afford us $10 now and then but interpret it as the magic path to retirement and financial independence... but it is (sadly) a path paved mostly by tears and frustration.
Excellent post... made it here via @dreemit... glad I did.
Very true, @anomadsoul. I think it's a BIG mistake to assume to be able to cover any expenses with ONLY steemit. Great respect to you for trying, especially while traveling! However, let's think about what people usually do on facebook anyway: reading and sharing stuff, linking things they've found on other sites, posting photos and telling stories about them, or in many cases just commenting, commenting, commenting... and nobody even thinks about earning a penny. Apply the same to steemit, it's what you would do anyway, but more presentably, more originally (or call it personalized) less copy-pasty. For that the 1-2 dollars for a post is an amazing reward. I think the problem is with expectations. But the same thing could be said about any activity: The other day I sold like 30 bottles of probiotic drinks at the market. WOW, what a milestone (needless to say, I had to build up my customer base first, before reaping such a reward).
Great article. I am not alone in my thinking. I blog everyday. I comment on around 30 posts a day. My articles get around 10 cents to 30 cents. I am glad to see that that is normal. I try to engage in conversation with people on the comment section. Over the past 5 months I have three people that I regularly speak with. Most will not respond to my comment. Many want me to just up vote and follow them (this is mostly foreigners none U.S.)
OH damn I just went through your blog and you are right you are very underrated my friend. I started following you, I might not be able to see everything you do and upvote it but whenever I see something I like count me in with my 20 cents hahaha
Exactly! People do not care to respond comments, most of them just post and let it be, they dont engage... and after that they ask themselves why they are not having success...
I agree. I always try to engage the community. There are so many fascinating people in here. I am glad to have met you!
Over the last month, I got too caught up in writing and not visiting other's blogs. I started to lose the sense of interaction and my viewership definitely declined because of it. I just followed both @anomadsoul and @jetblake, because I am looking for people that generally want to interact and produce good content.
As for milestones, they are relatively meaningless. I'll likely hit 1,000 followers this week, but what sort of accomplishment is that when I regularly only talk with 20 or so followers. It's a hollow number. I won't be doing anymore celebration posts myself. Keep on grinding boys, success is around the corner...sarc/
I agree. I am at 500 followers but only talk to the same 10 or so such as yourself. I wonder how many are bots or foreigners that think just by following they will magically make money or something.
I just looked at your blog and while I'm not an avid crypto hound I found some of your content resonates with me.
I upvoted, commented on and resteemed your camper van post and I'm following you.
What we need is an "under-appreciated" tag.
You are right. Thanks for the reply and reading my post. I appreciate that and your comments
I've read a few of your posts, they're worth reading so keep writing them.
Congrats :)
Hi Eric that is a very interesting post, I have never celebrated anything I don't know why, I'm not here to make money even though that is a nice plus and I am struggling in my life but I am on here to see how the other half lives to make friends see beautiful nature, different cultures , many things I've never seen, its awesome being here I love it and I'm happy to be your friend. Have a beautiful Tuesday my friend , I've loved seeing your travels and that's what's so cool about steemit! Peace and love🕊
Well we should celebrate Ceci! But by doing it we could show some responsibility and explain how we got there, not only the final result don´t you think? Hey, is there any way we can be in contact? Like steemit chat or FB or something? I would really like to get to know you better and to speak about that you are telling me about... Have a great thursday for you!
Never liked em' anyway.... celebratory posts that is..... As for people getting discouraged, well, only the strong survive in this world. Unfortunately, especially here in the States, we live in a "I want it right now, me,Me, ME MEEEEE" society. If someone can't take the time and effort it takes to build, get to know, or accomplish something without bitchin' and moaning or worse yet ....quitting... well then I figure I'm better off not knowin' them. Nicely done post by the way my brother as always. Congrats anyways by the way.
Yes! I mean, I am all pro natural selection and all but on steemit we should care for everyone, we need a pyramid sadly... I get it and I don´t think it is inly in the US, people are only waiting for their turn to talk, they don´t listen and this very same thought translates to post making.
Word to this mate, you are right in every sense. And thanks anyway, gotta celebrate a bit huh?
Great post, and you do deserve congratulations even if you don't want it.
You have stuck it out on Steemit, it isn't the get rich quick many newer members are imagining or maybe were told.
Little by little we grow, we must remember that most of the whales have been here a year and invested real money and a Sh!tload of hard, yes HARD work to get there.
Thank you for sharing your reality of life in Steemit.
upvote & resteem
very good points @anomadsoul. Rarely in this world do you see the work behind the result (unless you're doing the work yourself of course)
Yeah my friend, exactly my point. We only see the final product, not the process, would be nice to show the process step by step here on steemit, so people understand the hard work and also try to emulate it in their own way huh? :D
Good point, most people tend to ignore the hard work behind the result
Or even tend to ignore everything that is not their own posts! I cherish and hold dear all those people who take the time to go through their feeds and comment other people´s posts... have a great day :D
Somebody order a butt 🍑? I note milestones now rather then celebrate them per say. I hit 1000 posts the other day, it was a proud achievement.
As for followers? I can get 60 up votes with only 10 views?? I can't complain, and yet at the same time it feels dirty. Why are you paying me if your not even using my service?
🍑...🍑...🍑 🍆😉😂