Breaking Facebook's bonds
My withdrawal from Facebook has not been a forced one. It seems like a natural evolution. Ever heard the urban myth of the guy going out for milk and never returning home? Maybe it was a package of cigarettes when you heard it? It likely had a version of him going out to pick up an urn of wine, once upon a time. There was a cousin of mine who laid his wet paint brush on the open tin of paint he was using, got up and drove straight to the airport, never returning. Sometimes folks simply have had enough.
You can't be in two places at once and there is only so much social media time to go around in one day. One could mirror their Steemit posts to Facebook; yet why bother if you are not around to interact to comments and the like? That may make sense if one is on a mission of personal exposure. A hard working wannabe YouTube/DTube star, for example.
An attempt was made to define those different types of users drawn to Steemit in an early blog post of mine. That was before my withdrawal from Facebook had even begun, yet an insight into the differences between the two social media platforms and the motivation of their users was forming.
It is not my intention to turn my departure from Facebook into one of those rage quitting kind of things. Facebook has not instilled that degree, nor type, of emotion in me. Though talk of rage quitting does ring a bell... some rage-quitting memory seems to be lurking in the shadows of my past. In fairness, that was many years ago and my beef was with the software and not any bullies on the battlefield.
Anyway, although my FB Registration happened way back in 2009, my use of Facebook only peaked during protests in my country about the Anti-Terrorism Act in early 2015. This lead to more online activism in the election which followed in late 2015.
My guess is Facebook had me hooked by then. The installation of the mobile app made that a certainty. Yet that enabler shall soon be gone... that day soon cometh!
To be clear, my turning away from Facebook is not done with any animosity, what-so-ever. In fact it makes Steemit all the more homey when finding that another FB Friend has begun their adventure here.
It is the platform which has won me over. The blog flavor seems to permit a greater insight into many of the folks one interacts with here on Steemit. It has also seemed to have naturally opened me up and fostered deeper sharing on my part. This has been noted in friends coming over from Facebook, as well. Up until this point the FB weening has been a case of priorities. Only so much time in the day, with that time felt better spent on Steemit.
There is a degree of authenticity on steemit which never came through like that for me on Facebook. The blog flavor is likely a big factor, yet there are other reasons. The fact that what one is posting could have monetary value puts an interesting spin on the platform. It just feels right to, potentially, be rewarded for ones content. It's almost too early for me to, truly, know where this journey is taking me. It seems to be encouraging an openness and sharing on a much greater level than Facebook has ever done. Of course the fact of it being Open Source which uses blockchain technology had me doubling down on Enamor Points.
So far the limits, like the bandwidth one, has worked as a positive reminder for my obsessive personality. This system doesn't seem to want to own me.
To borrow Comedy Central's punchline, time spent on steemit seems like "time well waisted!".
I, too, have been cutting back on Facebook (and I say this as a really heavy Facebook user before, so I'm probably more like a casual user now, lol). I only wish I had more upvotes. One day I will have that slider bar...
Slider bar?? Is that what happens when you get more steem power? I've been wondering what poeple mean by "x-percent vote." As far as I know, I'm only capable of voting at one "level of power:" 100% (or whatever the blue bar indicating my level happens to be, as per steemd.com).
Once you get 500 SP, you can choose the % of your vote, so that you can have more to go around. So say you vote a lower % on comments and a higher percent on blog posts, or you give a high vote to favorites, etc., so you don't run out your vote power as fast. Also, once your vote is super powerful, this is how a whale could give you a few bucks or a hundred.
I think I kinda get it--geez 500 SP though?! That's a lot... I'm at 15 lol and over half of that is "delegated." today is three weeks, i think. How do some people grow so fast?? I've seen fellow steemians who started around the sam etime w wayyyy more sp than I do--and I feel like ive been doing pretty alright for myself here! lol (then again, ive seen the opposite too: way less points..). I heard someone say that if you havent been "successful" here within two months, you're probably not going to be. I just don'tknow how to gauge this supposed "success..." What is an "average" level/time? I guess the only answer is to ask others about thier experience, unless there is some other metric provided that helps newer members gauge how far along they are/ should be, etc. just to give us an idea.
I don't know that there is an average. A lot of people zoomed past me, but they had the luxury of dedicating all their rewards to building SP or buying Steem with fiat while I needed to cash out for bills. But then just recently I was delegated 500 SP (I was ~250 when it happened). Just keep chuggling along and being active is my advice!
So, would you suggest, as someone who does consider themselves as being pretty active on steemit, it being wise to focus on building up SP; therefore making one's contributions that much more prevalent / significant? Is that kinda how that works? And I still can't seem to get a grip on the whole "curation" deal--is it necessary to be at a certain level of something or other to even gain proceeds from curation? Thank you for your replies...
Yes, SP is really the key: to getting seen, to having your upvotes count more, to getting better curation rewards, for leveling up! It's an investment that will make your future Steeming more profitable, if you can manage it!
Nice. I like it: bieng active.... I guess I have FINALLY, after many years being not very active online, fallen into the Internet realm lol; at least, by way of beoming involved socially in some way. Never really took to fb, or anything for that matter (unless you count wayyy back in the day, the AOL chatroom days ahahah!). But steemit has pulled me in! I just hope I'm able to "find my niche," so to speak, while engendering a mutually beneficial environment. Oh, and it is my solid goal to be able to pay just one "bill" with any amount of prceeds from steemit!! lol that would be awesome haha
I have paid my electric bill three times, and the first time I did it I was like, I CAN'T BELIEVE I COULD PAY THIS BECAUSE OF BEING ONLINE! 😁
My feeling is that curation (posting on threads of other's posts) has helped increase my following. 75% of a post's earnings goes to the author and 25% to the curators. So if you have upvoted early (say 20 minutes) on a post that does well reward wise you can make a nice reward yourself.
Oh... interesting!! Thank you for that tid-bit. i did not know that, but , it makes sense!! I have tried that in the past, though: creating one post, which them sort of combines or "leads to" at least a couple of other related posts (on steemit). But do the curtated posts necessarily have to be steemit posts, or can they be anything? Either way: I don't think I earned any "curtion points" for any of those type posts. The only time I got curation was for, like you said, I upvoted a post which later did well (or, I guess it did, that's why I got points lol)
Baby steps. ;)
Wow, this is such an insightful post and I'm sure it resonates with many, many steemians like it does with me.
I just realized as well that my other social media interactions have dwindled to almost mill over the past days.....and , to my surprise, I don't miss it!
I still have an uneasy,floundering feeling as I try to navigate all the waters steemit has to offer. And I'm slightly struggling to find my direction or "voice"
I had a cousin join the other day and I was genuinely ecstatic to see someone I'm close to in real life take the plunge! Thanks for putting into words what we are all feeling.
Glad the post has resonated with you, Papa. It's as if Steemit has some mysterious FB Detoxing antidote, isn't it? :)
In my opinion, a much needed antidote!
Ok I've been on Steem for about 3 weeks now and I am already noticing I spend less time in FB. I must admit I seem to have a bit of an addictive personality so I'm probably replacing one addiction with another, but at least with Steem something more positive is gonna come out of it! FB just isn't that attractive anymore and they are constantly changing shit where u don't see this or that and it drives me crazy!!!
If it is replacing one addiction for another then, in my opinion, you are switching to a better quality product at least. 😎
I agree!!
I love it. Well said. I too as you know have quite a crowd on fakebook. But somehow I feel I've outgrown it and on so many levels that you just mentioned. For me it simply lacked depth and I found myself putting the same stuff in writing to inform people. So here I feel I can write it once and then leave it. The biggest thing for me moving over is I've been writing for some time now and twice I've had shaken encounters with publisgers. Some of my work has been stolen by an editor and may already be published somewhere without my name or knowledge. This particular editor has stolen a few other people's work and some has been found to be published by her under a dodgy name. So my trust levels are way down on that system being I've already had one book stolen. So I decided to start putting my poetry and other things I write in steemit. It's a good thing for me. It's proof that I wrote it and it can't be removed from here. I also have limited experience with technology so for me this is a great place for me to store my smaller pieces I write. Especially my poetry that at some point I also intend on starting to do videos reading it. Take it from the written word to the spoken.
Glad the post struck a chord with you, Tony. 😎
Really enjoyed this post. Definitely a topic weighing on me lately. I'm also really starting to find it true what you said about this platform opening up better insight/content. cheers :)
So glad it resonated with you, @noriflora!
Fabulous blog!
"It is not my intention to turn my departure from Facebook into one of those rage quitting kind of things. Facebook has not instilled that degree, nor type, of emotion in me."
So resonates with me! :)
Facebook has provided some amazing networks and fabulous friends!
I also would like to respond to your comment regarding the "blog factor," and how it is in large part a likely contributor to the platform's level of "authenticity." So, I am correct in thinking that there really is no way to "hide" posts; or, in the least, even really have much of an influence whatever over who sees your posts, right? I was thinking about this earlier while entering a contest on steemit. The subject matter was a bit personal, and I wasn't sure if I necessarily wanted to broadcast all this information to the whole of steemit and any subsequent viewers (this brings up a whole other topic of how I wish I would have began my "journey into steemit" from a more anonymous position to begin with--if not because in the very least, it would afford me more options later on how to administer that). But I figured I didn't really have a choice, do I? To that point, I am curious: cn someone answer? Who can see one's posts (including who will be able to see them in the future; for how long?); how is this regulated if so desired by either poster or viewer (follower)? I imagine there are probably some nifty steem apps that can do some of these things, now that I think of it, but I'm not sure. Anyone? Bueller?
By my understanding, posts can be downvoted to such a degree that they will not likely appear for anyone. If you see such posts in blogs they are greyed out. However unless some folks are trying to down vote you then your post will be viewable via searches and the like for as long as the blockchain is sustained.