It's no secret that I love this place, but before I used Steemit, I used Facebook. Inevitably I now hate Facebook.

A depressed Facebook user

A warped sense of reality

Each day I check my Facebook account. It's a habit. I've used Facebook for years and so it's become second nature to check it. Most of my friends use Facebook and I still use it to communicate with them. What I've come to realize though, over the years that I've used the site, is that it's full of shit.

I'm not talking about the useless statuses that people post, I'm talking about what does and does not appear in my news feed. I've literally had to unfollow everyone in order to see intelligible posts from certain pages that post on-point content. That's not because I dislike everything my friends post, but because Facebook only chooses to show me the posts that I dislike. Obviously that's subjective, but when you're like me and you only like seeing stuff that's enlightening and yet all you're being shown is shitty vines and memes, you know somethings up.

This has lead to others, who haven't caught on yet, believing that idiocy is normal in the 21st century. It leads them to believe that so-called "trends" displayed on the trending page, are all that's going on in the world. It's lead people to believe that they're in-touch with the world, when really they've become ignorant to real issues and falsities purported through mainstream outlets.

Facebook was caught out recently, from within its own ranks, for choosing what is and isn't shown on the trending section. And it's not just Facebook doing it, but a whole conglomerate of online faucets that drown out the sound of real topics. The greatest example of this would be the recent wikileaks scandals involving Hillary Clinton and her emails. Not once was this topic seen on the trending page during the leak nor has it been on there since.

Here's a screenshot from Facebook, their explanation on how they choose what's trending

It's clear that Facebook, along with other major internet companies, are governing what we do & what we don't see. Another clear example is advertising. Through data gathering, these sites collude with one-and-other to decide which advertisements they're going to display on your feeds. Did you ever wonder why something relative to what you just google searched is now popping up in your Facebook feeds? It's because they're working together to better target you as a customer, because that's all you are; a consumer.

So while everyone else is being fed porky pies, I've since removed every status I ever posted. I was sick to death of getting 50+ likes on a random photo of my ugly mug, while getting 1 like on something that's relevant to the world and its problems. Some could say that's an extreme approach but I would say that I'm removing myself from their evil equation. I no longer want to be involved in the collusion between social media outlets, news media outlets, and the corporations that control them.

Steemit solves these issues

Decentralized and communal, Steemit solves these issues by putting control back in the hands of its users.

The first time I posted here, expressing similar discontent in an article named "From Fakebook to Prosperity", one of the creators of Steem liked it. That alone was enough to make me feel at home. I immediately felt a sense of relief as I realized that this was a place free from censorship & control.

Sense I've been on the site, about four months now, I still feel the same. Of course I've had my ups & downs over the course of that time, the price drop being one extreme downer, yet nothing has stopped me from posting.

Everything about this place is attractive to me. Its decentralized nature, its transparent blockchain, the intelligent content being created by its users. These things make my time here enjoyable. When I'm on Facebook I do not experience joy. Instead, I feel pain and despair when I scroll through my feeds and see how incredibly biased it is. It pains me to see that, what's fashionable in society is more important to some, than is the topic of genocide & war; real issues being swept under a rug weaved with junk.

When I scroll through my follower feed here on Steemit, I feel the opposite way.

Here I can see every post from each user in real time. Each user I follow is a person who creates credible content. I have learned more from these people in the short time I have been here, than I learned in public school. People from all walks of life with real life experiences who create quality content for real rewards are teaching me, and I love it.

I will admit, I have followed some people as a courtesy and have had to go back and unfollow them because they weren't posting enlightening content. If that's you, don't worry about my opinion, I'm a very particular person when it comes to what I do and don't read. If you're one of the people I currently follow and you're reading this, I would like to quickly say thank you for all the great stuff you guys create. It truly does give value to the platform.

Of course there are issues and bugs that still need addressing when it comes to Steemit, such as the current voting bots we see (not that I should complain, considering they give me a lot of my rewards), but these issues are nothing that we, as a community, can not fix together.

Some people have argued that Steemit is centralized because the wealth being distributed is held among a select few. While this may be true, we should remember that without that wealth being distributed from the top 1% here, you would not be receiving the rewards that you do. If some accounts weren't worth millions, then you'd very rarely see more than a dollar on your post. In saying that, nothings stopping someone like Donald Trump coming along and creating an account with 50 million SP. This is what trickle down economics is, and Steem proves that it can work through decentralized control.

Community integrity moving forward

As we, the users of Steemit, move forward in our endeavor for quality content, it should be made abundantly clear that it is up to us to ensure the integrity of this platform is not lost in its development. It is up to us to stay vigilant as it evolves, to ensure that this platform stays true to what it is, and does not fall into the hands of the corporate dictators that control 90% of the internet. It is up to us to vote on witnesses we know we can trust, to deliver the best service the world-wide-web has ever seen.

As we grow not only as a platform but as a community, there will be plenty of obstacles that we will have to overcome. After all, Steemit is a new concept and with new things come new challenges.

Through our undivided attention in this new "attention economy", we can ensure that only the very best individuals within our ranks are placed on pedestals for the world to see, as shining symbols of hope whose wisdom can lead us toward becoming a global society that works. Through tolerance and unprejudiced behavior, I truly believe that the community here will become a threat to any malevolent predators that currently threaten society from the shadows.

If we do not remain true to the foundations that Steemit has been built on, a decentralized and trust-less network between peers, then we could quickly see this dream fade out of existence. This is an unprecedented type of governance, socialistic in nature & based on peer-to-peer networking, the likes of which were merely dreams to philosophers and working class revolutionaries until now. We need to remember that what we have here is special and that it's up to each and every one of us to ensure its success in the future.

Thank you for reading.

Thomas Te Aroha Kohi | Entrepreneur
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