Does Steemit create a new, a true value of participation!? - Transforming the value of attention - Why I am bullish on Steem! Steemit Rise - for me - for you - for everyone!

(nice work and thanks @cass)

In this blogpost I want to discuss and investigate the value of attention and its meanings for users, founders and investors of social networks.
Steemit seems to create a first true value of participation in a social network.
This is why Steemit has a very bullish society and even more potential of rising.

Steemit created a new kind of valuation.

I will start with a short comparison of some social networks: (probably most of you already know)

In most parts of our world it isn't very difficult to get signed up to a social network.
Facebook just reached 1 billion accounts 4 years ago.

There are a lot of different reasons to use social networks and so there were formed different communites:
Instagram is for sharing pictures,
Twitter is for sharing thoughts,
Youtubefor sharing videos, and so on.
Facebook seems to hold the main position for sharing users' lifes.
Reddit is a bit more special, because it's like a reflection of information from the surface web. So its called the Frontpage of the Internet, kind of a digital Reader's Digest. It is a nice example for the similarities of all social networks.

Now it's time to pay attention!

Reddit was a nice experience to learn about what's getting attention on the internet. For its users, every social network fulfills the need for sharing information with a group of peers, now called followers, which creates the scenario of getting and paying attention.

To cite @cryptoscope

Collectively, user-generated content has created billions of dollars worth of value for the shareholders of social media companies, such as Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter. Steem supports social media and online communities by returning much of its value to the people who provide contributions by rewarding them with virtual currency!

The Intention of Attention

Facebook, youtube, blogs, Instagram etc. are proving that people are willing to share there lives, thoughts or interests in form of written or pictured content. They always do because of attention.
The internet is the place to share everything. So nearly everthing on the surface web was created with the intention of getting attention.
So there are two sides.

1. The individuals who pay attention and
2. The individuals who inspire, create and get attention.

The Value of Attention

Anybody wants to get attention. Kids want to get attention from their parents. Teachers want to get attention from their students. You maybe want to get attention from your friends, family, and partners.
But there is a limited amount of time that anyone can pay attention to anything. So everybody wants to get attention, but the amount of attention, that can be paid, is limited.
This urge of sharing information with other people seems to have an intrinsic motivation and a personal value.
This motivation is based mostly on simple emotions: It feels good to get any kind of attention and and it feels even better to get positive feedback or inspire somebody's mind. In everyday life, you see people's faces, hear them say „Thank you“ and be looked at. There is a direct response for sharing your thoughts, pictures, what ever.
Good feelings and acknowledgment are benefits from sharing information and therefore they are „valuable“ for us.

This is why so many people are using the internet for this sharing opportunity.

But if public sharing is for getting attention from people you don't even know or you normally don't care about, where exactly does the value come from? You don't see their faces, you don't know if you actually had any impact on their lives.

Beeing a public blogger is earning rewards in form of attention. But since usually there is no opportunity for earning real life value in form of fiat money, it's hard to estimate the value of it at all!
There seems to be just a few opportunities to do so.
For example, if you sign a commercial contract for your youtube account, you can earn a few bucks for getting a lot of views. That demonstrated that it is possible to transform the value of digital attention in a real value of fiat. The entire commercial industry is using this strategy.

Money through attention!

For you as a user, the money you can earn through this is more like a consolation prize (exp. youtube klicks)! So there seems to be an existing imbalance of creating and earning money through attention.
Facebook simply sells all of its users' content for real fiat money and became a multibillion dollar company. But until today FB was rewarding nothing to any of its users creating that wealth!

…

And here comes the magic of steemit:

The Value of Participation!

There are 3 levels on which this participation is valuable:

#1. Without singning up:

• simply consume posts and earn the benefit of learning, getting entertaint and follow the discussion about it (like consuming any other kind of „free“ information)

#2. Joining and singning up without any risks, but the benefit of:

• the possibility of getting riskless valuable rewards for participation in form of votings, discussions and sharing.
• the possibilty of getting riskless valuable rewards for active creation! (submit an own post)

#3. Investing/Speculating (intrinsic risk)

• get valuable rewards for stakeholding (risk of volatiliy & payout period 104 weeks)
• earning money with speculation (intrinsic risk/potential of trading)

This is the „magic“ of steem everybody is talking about!

If you just decide to participate with peaceful and honest intentions, try to be collectively helpful in any kind but can still keep your self-confidence, a healthy egoism and a determined mind, you are just in profit! (Investing and gambling has a fundamental risk and potential of losing or earning value, but this post should not be about this topic.)
If we don't focus on investing decisions, there is this beautiful situation now, where you don't have to invest money to earn money. If you simply try to make profits with your participation, you can't lose anything but always have the possibility of getting paid.

So the decision to participate seems to be a no-brainer for this reason.
Once this was proved, often enough people will realize this offer.

This thought is very powerful!
There is a huge momentum, if this will work out fine.
Of course it has to be proven.
But if steem can build a heavily proven platform which creates a real value out of participation this will be gold!
It would create a situation where it's always the best decision to join and participate.

Steemit represents a system where anybody - in theory - has the same conditions to start with.
I do not pretend that of course it's relevant how much money you can afford to put into the system and even at which time you joined. But for now I want to concentrate just on the fact that anybody has the same access for costs and benefits (investing and gambling has a fundamental risk and a potential of losing or earning value).
Steemit will keep growing until reaching the critical mass of users to be a really powerful, useful and highly valuable social network in the future. So this could be another revolutionary and disruptive example in the social network economy.

This would be what some people call:

Join or Die

go through the critical mass

become to big to fail

or simply

„To the moon!!!“ ┗(°0°)┛

….

Get it?! This is the actual potential of steem!

(By the way, this is the beauty of blockchain. So it is worth to learn more about this for everyone!)

If simply any of your friends are getting and spending rewards for joining, you could have a facebook account no one cares about anymore. What are your posts and shares for that? If you can't beat it, you simply have to join it.

So it's always the best decision to participate!

The Balance of Egoism and Altruism.

In theory these are two opposite principles of behaviour and intentions. But this is about the idea of a healthy balance of these apparent opposites. Like a healthy balance of spirit and body. It's difficult to want the best for our own and the best for everyone else at the same time. But I simply see no reason why this won't work out for users on steemit. The Power of Participation could be a natural developing balance of creating and consuming.

Here is a great example for the power of honest and highly determined participation (especially in early stages) Well done @clains!
(Other very different but great examples of valuable und honest participation @cass, @craig-grant, @donkeypong, @heiditravels and many more)

So @anybody:
What if this is for real?!

Take it serious!
Think about your honest intentions and enjoy the benefit of participating! Don't only focus on the cents and dollars you get or don't get and others get.

This is why I am bullish on Steemit!
Share this idea! And last but not least, simply discuss and explain it to determined and interested people.

If you can't beat it. join it!

and get the rewards you deserve for your interaction.

Happy Steeming !

greetings,
Joshbreslauer