Essence of Steemit

I came to Steemit after hearing about it from a group of extremely excited and thrilled people.  "No way, a social media platform with legit incentives for generating and reviewing content!"  Initially, my reaction was "Oh no, imagine what people are going to do for those upvotes."  From my experience with experimental economics and simulations of how people interact with each other, I had thought that people were going to go through superficial means, literally whatever tactic to grab people's attention and to get their "rewards."  In one of the many simulations we did, a key lesson I found was that people will consume whatever they have now for the instant gratification of having received something immediately after (kinda obvious, I guess, looking back at it now).  In the context of Steemit, I thought that most people would just upload obscene images or gifs with an obnoxious amount of colors flashing at an incredible rate, both of which are unfortunately indeed "attention-grabbers" and attempt to reach into the inner primitiveness of many (not all) of us.  

I went on the site, but what do you know, people are posting narrations of their beautiful and diversified lives.  They are posting absolutely gorgeous pictures of the places they have been to, and even upload samples of their music for people to listen to.  Steemit is not the idiotic hub of superficiality I feared it to be; it's a place for travelers, artists, musicians, coders, etc.  In other words, people with a story to tell.   

People are posting genuine posts and, in my eyes, are building a good reputation for themselves.  This is fantastic.  At the core, Steemit is still a social media platform.  It's a way of connecting with others and sharing what we think to the mass public.  This in itself is a great reward, such that people in even the most remote places can keep in touch.  Steem is an incentive to stay connected, and it truly empowers people to do so with decency.  I know many here have expressed similar views; I am in accord with you all and wanted to offer my own thoughts and experience with Steemit so far.  Thank you and I'll talk to you all again soon!