42 Things I love About Steemit So Far

marksheppard (63)in #steemit • 7 years ago (edited)

MEANING OF LIFE MONDAY: 42 REASONS I LOVE STEEMIT SO FAR.

On Mondays, I will post 42 of something. 42 photos of my dogs being silly, 42 abstract photos, 42 reasons weed is better than alcohol. You get the idea.

1. Generosity

I've only been on Steemit since November of 2017. Even though that's when I signed up, I've only been truly active for the last maybe 6 weeks or so. After online a few days on the platform, I noticed a great deal of generosity by some of the members.

I was very intrigued by the OpHumanAngels project I noticed @davedickeyyall posting about. He was one of the first people I followed, and I thought the idea of committing random acts of kindness seemed so cool. What a better way to spend one's time than bickering.

Not too long after that, I stumbled upon a post by @moderndayhippie who was running a contest to give away all of his weed smoking supplies before he moved to another country, as taking them with was not an option. Rather than selling them, he gave them all away for free, and I was extremely surprised when I got a message from him saying that he was still waiting for me to claim my prize. I never win anything! That was so amazing, and the piece really added value to my life.

2. Curation

Thinking about the number of hours I've wasted in the infinite scroll of sites like Facebook is a little embarrassing at this point. On the other hand, the more time I spend browsing on Steemit and interacting with other users, the more I will gain in experience and make in rewards. When you give users an incentive to find and upvote quality content, you ensure that the overall quality of the posts on the platform will be greater.

3. Civility

I don't really find myself getting in pointless arguments on Steemit like I do on other social media platforms. On Twitter, I feel like everyone is immediately jumps to "hey, fuck you buddy!"

4. It's not centered in one country

I've interacted with people all over the world on Steemit. I realized that's possible on other social media platforms, but not in the same way by any stretch of the imagination. There's no reason for a world so connected by technology to remain so separated by tradition.

5. A possible solution to poverty

I think technology like Steem may play a crucial role in lifting countless people up from under the shackles of poverty. There are brilliant people in every country in the world, but some of them normally would never have a chance have their voices heard, let alone make some sort of income from it.

6. The idea of "do what you love and you'll work a day in your life" no longer seems like a sick, twisted joke.

I've heard that before, but I kind of think of it as mostly a sick joke. What do I love to do? I love to make music, take photos, cook food, and talk about cannabis. It is possible to make a living doing any of those things, but it's not exactly easy. Especially when you're busy working a regular 9-5 to make ends meet. By the time you're done working for the majority of your waking hours, sometimes it's hard to be motivated to be creative.

I like the job I have now, but the idea of working on my own terms is still appealing. One nice thing about making money on Steemit is that putting in more effort may actually result in higher rewards, which is not the case with many traditional jobs.

7. Motivation

I'm now very motivated to be creative (even though I'm still working a lot), just because it's beneficial on this platform and could eventually be a way for me to avoid the standard 9-to-5 grind.

I realize this is kind of the same thing as number 6, but you try coming up with 42 reasons you like something. :)

8. Security

Everything we post on Steemit is free from censorship, from deletion, from being hidden to some users. It's all open and trackable.

9. Knowledge

In my short time here, I've learned so much about a variety of topics, and it seems like an endless source of knowledge. About cannabis, about politics, about humanitarian concerns. I've had good laughs, had some pretty deep and sometimes dark conversations with people, and overall just feel like my time spent here is beneficial because of the learning I can do.

10. Freedom

Being able to openly express yourself is crucial to freedom. It is my belief that freedom will always be protected on a platform like this. That's sort of the whole point, right?

11. Nerdiness

That's right. There are a lot of nerdy types here on Steemit, and I love it. I mean that in the nicest way. I love all of the services people have come up with. Like SmartSteem, the Bot Tracker, etc. When you use some of the very helpful tools people have made available here, you can increase your likelihood of success.

My day job consists of web and FileMaker development, so these tools that users have created are very intriguing to me.

Word of advice: research what you're really getting when you use upvote bots. It's not exactly the get rich quick scheme it might seem like it is if you don't understand how it works. Some people have mixed feelings about the bots, but I think they're useful when starting out if used properly.

12. Helpfulness

Now seems like a perfect time to mention how helpful people are on Steemit.

If you are new to Steemit or feel like you need some help learning the ropes, stop reading this post right now (after you upvote it, I mean) and head over to @jerrybanfield and watch some of his videos and read some of his helpful articles. Those have helped me more than anything else on Steemit so far.

13. Opportunity

You can get started investing in Steem without putting in any of your own money to get started. It may take you a little bit longer to start making decent money from your activity on Steemit, but as you gain followers and consistently create quality content, your Steem Power will grow, and success will follow suit.

14. Watching creators I have followed for years on other platforms be successful

I found out about Steemit because I listen to The David Pakman Show and have for years. After Steemit was mentioned a few times on his program, I decided to look into it.

It gives me great joy to see how successful @davidpakman has been on Steemit. I've been a member of his show for years, and also contribute via Patreon, and I hated hearing about all of the troubles the show was having revenues being drastically cut overnight.

15. This one is also funny to list right after praise for TDPS, but: learning more about libertarianism

I do not consider myself a libertarian by any means. During the 2016 US election, I looked into libertarianism a bit due to the sheer lack of any decent candidates running in any of the other parties. Because I thought Gary Johnson was a pretty poor choice, and sort of stopped going down that road altogether.

I'm beginning to think that the best hope my country has is a teaming up of true progressives and libertarians. Those two subsets of society definitely don't see eye-to-eye on everything, but I think they have many common goals that, if achieved, would be better off for everyone.

Having said all of that, I'm interested in learning more about the views of libertarians here on Steemit.

16. Quality content

People have incentive to spend more time on their content. Formatting the posts to make them easier to read, adding visuals, proofreading, etc.

Instead of vaguebooking and complaining, which is what I seemed to see the most of on Facebook, people write articles, share wonderful photos, share music, and generally just put a lot of thought and effort into what content they're presenting on their blog.

This sort of needs to be said: there's also a lot of garbage content on Steemit, but that's where flagging can come in handy. If someone posts something that is plagiarized, there are bots (@cheetah) that will figure it out and post on it. @SteemCleaners issues reports about posts that are plagiarized or otherwise bad.

17. No billion-dollar corporation reaping all the benefits.

Instead of having to pay a multi-billion dollar company to allow people to see the content YOU created, you control it yourself, and actually get paid for it. What a novel idea!

18. Steem itself

The possibility of significant upward growth of Steem is very exciting. If Steem grows by as much as some people are predicting, an account worth $1,000 today could be worth multiple times that in a few short years. Super fast transactions are conveniently awesome. The appeal is going to be massive. If you didn't head over to @jerrybanfield the last time I suggested it, go watch some of his videos about his thoughts on Steem.

19. Blockchain technology itself

Steemit was my introduction to blockchain technology. I'm a total n00b, and I admit that. I find the very idea of it so fascinating, though. I would love to someday see voting be down via blockchain, with 100% verifiable results. I truly believe that's a possibility, if our corrupt leaders will allow it.

20. Insight into grow operations

Seeing so many amazing cannabis grow operations. I don't know people personally who grow cannabis, and I haven't really seen any grows in person (sad, I know). There are so many people on Steemit sharing their grows, though, for better and for worse. If I ever decide to give it a shot myself, I feel as though I'll have a decent amount of knowledge going in and will be at least slightly less likely to make mistakes.

21 Breathing new life into older content.

I've taken many photos and written a lot of music throughout the years that essentially never was seen or heard by anyone. By being able to share it on Steemit, and actually get rewarded for it, I fe

Being able to dig into my archives and reshare things that got lost in the shuffle years ago is great.

22. Less political arguing, more sharing of thoughts

This is essentially the same as #3 (civility), but it's important enough to be said again. My belief is that the left and the right in the US are both so polarized that it's impossible to even have discussions anymore. There is significant infighting within the two political parties in the US.

Maybe it's out of fear of being flagged, but people seem to just be more able to have meaningful discussions about serious issues without immediately going on the offense.

23. Critical thinking and intelligence is not mocked like it is by so many on Twitter.

Maybe they're all Russian bots (haha), but it seems like there is a growing number of people on platforms like Twitter who are anti-intellectual. Have you seen the film Idiocracy? If so, do you know the way people from 2505 mocked Not Sure for talking weird? Well, it might as well be the year 2505 on Twitter sometimes.

Because of his success on Steemit, @davidpakman will be releasing a 15 part miniseries on critical thinking.

24. No use for Facebook

25. Commenting can be like creating new mini posts.

Sometimes, I'll end up essentially making mini posts under someone else's post in the form of a comment, as people have done to some of mine. Having others add their perspective to my content is very useful, as is interacting with users in regards to their content.

26. It brought passions of mine back from the dead.

I mentioned this before a bit, but I've released music I recorded years ago and intend on making more now. I've taken more photos recently than I have in years, whereas that was my main hobby 10 years ago.

27. Less time wasted

The amount of television I used to watch was always concerned to me, but it's hard to break routines sometimes. Lately, though, the idea of sitting in front of a television staring at it just isn't as appealing to me. I've got work to do! I also don't play video games much anymore, but I know that's not a waste of time to some people, and I don't mean to insult anyone. It's just not a passion of mine or anything... more like something I do when I'm stoned.

28. It made me more of a writer

I've been writing some articles and longer posts lately, and it's been great. I've never considered myself much of a writer, although I have started some blogs throughout the years that I maintained sporadically.

29. It made me more of a reader

Pretty self explanatory.

30. It keeps me on the edge of my seat.

It's exciting to send a post off into the world and see how it does. It's also fun to watch the value of Steem fluctuate wildly. I'm in this for the long haul, so the fact that Steem is worth less than half what it was recently, I'm not scared, and I'm not about to stop creating content. It's going to be an exciting ride.

31. Getting actual rewards instead of seeking likes and retweets is more fulfilling.

What good is a retweet or a like really? What value do they actually add to one's life?

32. No worry about demonetization

You can let it all out. Let your freak flag fly. As long as what you're posting isn't illegal, it will not be removed or demonetized.

33. Make money with less followers than on other platforms

One interesting thing about Steemit, is you can view the wallet of any user. If you check some of the more popular posters on here (some of whom I mentioned earlier), they're making a fairly significant amount of money on Steemit already, which far less followers that they had on sites like YouTube previously. Imagine the opportunities as Steemit grows and these users do have the same (or greater) number of followers?

34. I'm not making some billionaire even richer

Who really needs a billion dollars? I mean, come on.

35. Steemit doesn't sell my personal information.

That said, I am annoyed that I didn't think longer about my username when I first started out. I would've rather remained a little more anonymous, but it's all good. No one really knows who I am anyway.

36. Learned more about investing

Investing in Steem is a long term goal of mine, but because of the information I've consumed here on Steemit already, I'm branching out and trying to buy other coins, as well as some traditional stocks.

37. No ads

I don't see the last thing I searched for on Google as an ad on my Steemit feed. I don't see sponsored trending topics for shitty frozen pizza or watered-down beer.

38. DIY Rebels replacing tech giants = the future

DIY or die! No, but seriously, Steemit would started by regular people (whatever that means), not some already big-and-powerful tech giants.

39. Telling others about Steemit

My friend @ronpurtee will tell you this, but I never frigging shut up about Steemit. Even though no one seems to understand what I'm talking about when I attempt to explain what it is, I never cease to attempt it. I've also been trying to coach Ron has he gets started on Steemit, using the experience I've gained thus far.

40. Glass artists

Follow @borofreak to see some amazing glass work that he posts on a regular basis. There are many more, too. I find the work such artists do to be as mesmerizing as it is creative. Each piece is completely unique.

41. It Don't Matter. None of this matters

That's a reference to Aqua Teen Hunger Force, if you don't know. What I mean is that you can take losses with a grain of salt if you have the right mindset. Just know that your account will likely grow exponentially in value at some point, even if you take losses some time. The post I lost the most money on ever was also the one I spent the most time on ever. Ironically, it was a week ago, when I posted 42 quotes about weed, complete with pictures for every one.

https://steemit.com/cannabis/@marksheppard/meaning-of-life-monday-42-quotes-about-weed-herb-wacky-tabacky-ganja-sticky-icky

Do I care? Nah, not really. It'll all work out in the end.

42. Enthusiasm for cannabis in general

I saved the best for last, although I have touched on it a bit. There is a massive community of cannabis enthusiasts from all over the world on steemit. Someday, millions of us are going to get together in the same place and make a cloud of smoke so huge, it'll be seen from space.

Thank you for reading! If you liked this post, would you please consider giving it an upvote or sharing it with your followers? I would truly appreciate it. Thanks!

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All of these photos came from Pixabay.