The reason people get addicted to steemit

We as humans are quite capable of creating addictions to just about anything. The reason for this might be due to our evolution where things that brought us any slight amount of satisfaction were good things, which possibly kept us and our families alive. This satisfaction therefore was very important and for us to want to get the same satisfaction again, we developed what might be called addiction to the source. In todays world, however, we are a blaze with different sources of satisfaction and we can't quite get enough of it. Why would we?

How did we get to where we are now?

In the past satisfaction was mostly biological. One got satisfaction from eating things that had great amount of energy (as they do today). One could achieve satisfaction through physical activities also. The other way of course was to cheat the system by consuming substances that stimulated satisfactory outlets in the brain.

Somewhere along the way, we developed a satisfaction to things we knew could lead to satisfaction such as monetary rewards. Rewards, which didn't cause any biological satisfaction themselves, meaning that we might get satisfaction from the more psychological aspect of ability to get satisfaction. This is what changed what we aspired for.

We started wanting stability in our lives. We created civilizations in which people worked for the prospect of satisfying their need for food, by working for some sort of monetary gain created by the civilizations. These monetary things were the first types of money. Now we started to only look to make more of this, money. Getting it satisfied us, because we could buy more satisfaction with it. In the early days, food, shelter or something.

At some point we got to a situation where more and more people had enough tokens of satisfaction that they could start to decide if they wanted stability or adventure. Anyway, what everyone still needed were the tokens of satisfaction. Some of course realized that getting rid of these tokens of satisfaction would be beneficial for them and due to the civilization we had created it was now possible for people to decide that also.

How does satisfaction actually work?

Satisfaction is created in the brain. As described, the simplest way to create satisfaction is through biological means. Food causes chemical reactions that fire impulses in the brain. The right kinds of impulses for satisfaction are caused when dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, or endorphine activated brain cells are fired. These are the main causes of satisfaction and each of them causes slightly different variations of satisfaction. Some will make you happy, some will down right get you high (in excessive amounts).

Now, these different impulses can be fired also via non-chemical induced reactions. The reactions can be learned. And when they are learned you get satisfaction from things like earning money. The downside is, that when these reactions used often, their effects start to lessen. Same goes for biologically induced reactions. This is how addiction is brought on. You want to obtain that same satisfaction, but it isn't quite so simple anymore, so you need to push harder. So to say.

So how about steemit?

Well, steemit is a bath of satisfaction. Right from the start, you get to wait. This builds up tension and you wait for the satisfaction of getting your account. OH, now you have your account. And wait, there's more! You've earned your first 0.5 steem just by signing up! MONEY!

This is where it starts.

Now, you already knew you'd be making money when you signed up. You write your first post and the first people upvote your post and possibly comment on your post and you see that your pending rewards are valued in Dollars. It doesn't take you more than a split second to realize that dollars are monetary rewards, after all, by this time in your life you've already made the association that money = satisfaction.

The story continues.

You write your next post. You make more money. Each time another upvote is given, you earn more money. CA-CHING, CA-CHING, CA-CHING!

A week goes by and you see that now the money you earned during the first day actually is deposited into your account. This only strengthens your believe in this source of satisfaction. CA-CHING!

You start spending more and more time on steemit and you realize that, wow, it isn't just the monetary gain. There is also a community. MORE SATISFACTION!

There is so much satisfaction on steemit that your brain is basically high on all sorts of satisfactory things by now. The more you earn, the more you get addicted.

What to do about the addiction?

I dunno. Enjoy it? I'm addicted. I'll admit it. But I'm addicted to many things. Coffee, food, things adults do (for the kids ;) ), ok I'm not going to try to list all my addictions. And anyway, if you want to be strict on the use of the words addiction, it isn't addiction before it becomes a problem. So please, if you find that steemit starts to interrupt your life for the worse. Try to cut down on it, that is when addiction stops being a joke.

Thanks for reading. Anything you'd like to add?