Steemit LOVE
There are a zillion reasons to love the Steemit platform. And well, you are here, so you probably have some great reasons of your own! I know there are a lot of crypto lovers out here. And people who know about and believe in the technology behind Steemit, or people who firmly stand for decentralisation and Steemit fits their life philosophy.
For me, when people ask me (or I ask myself) how it's possible that I make money with posting and curating here on Steemit - I don't know. It doesn't make sense to me. And I've watched those little info videos about how the blockchain works. But it doesn't stick, I don't know, there's just not really a context in my current set of experiences that allows me to give meaning to the whole crypto thing. Yet. Because, a few days back, I decided that even if right now I'm not really a techie girl, there's always the opportunity of becoming one. Like learning a new language, or adopting a new culture, or starting a new sport. Learning something completely different is not only exciting, it helps you reinvent yourself, requires you to be fresh and alive. And I love being fresh and alive ;) and I definitely plan on adding more tech savvieness to my life reportoire!
Still, for me, the underlying technology, the amazing scope of possibilities that it opens up, the world of decentralisation and improved accessibility and everything - they are not what make me hang on to Steemit. They are really cool, like an added long term bonus. Like buying an apartment and renting it out, and after 30 years having the appreciation of the property. The whole planet scale change that the crypto world is bringing about, that is like appreciation to me. Even the value of my account is more of a long term thing, since that value doesn't show for so much now and I do believe building an online presence here will be rewarding in the future. But for me, with most things in life, just the long term promises don't make me very active on a daily basis. And well, upvotes and rewards and comments also don't always work as my fuel, since not every post that I've put my effort in collects the same amount of attention.
So when things are a little slow, what is my number one reason for staying here? What's the immediate pay-off that makes me come back to Steemit every time again?
Different, similar, you and me
The curation rewards make me go back to finding awesome new content all the time. To be completely honest, knowing that there is a (tiny) reward to finding and upvoting great (so far unnoticed) content is really helpful, providing motivation to scroll through the huge amounts of content every day. But as I do scroll through content and look out for interesting topics, posts where people put in their personal efforts, sharing about their passions and/or life experiences or just present information that is relevant to them at that time - I find out so so so many interesting things. Like overwhelmingly interesting things. About life and how people experience it.
I know there are blogs all over the internet. Travel blogs food blogs life hack blogs... But the thing with those is, once you've found a content creator you enjoy you stick with them, and once you're saturated you might not always be on the look-out for more. I have my favourite YouTube creators and my favourite food blogs and I go back to them, just for sake of convenience. Like a favourite place to go and have coffee or a favourite bench to go sit and enjoy some sunshine. We humans are creatures of habit, after all. And Steemit helps us stretch a little by encouraging and rewarding finding new content and new creators.
So what happens is, I stumble across a blog of a Thai girl @rosethiyada who has an au pair job in Norway, after spending two years in my own country Netherlands. Or after posting about my love for Ultimate Frisbee I find the account of @fingersik and get to enjoy his awesome posts on his experiences of playing on the Czech national team. Or @kenanqhd writes an amazing post about his life in China as a Canadian, and I can just imagine a little how it would be since I've spent close to two years living in an Asian country as well. In all these posts, I find experiences I can relate to and which are at the same time very different from mine. I find that all around the globe there are people who I feel connected to, related to, with whom I share one thing or the other. Sometimes age, sometimes nationality, sometimes interests, sometimes experiences. And yet all these people are very different too and the way they share, the words they use, the emphasis as they put it shows me how we each have our own perspectives and own ideas about what it means to live the life we live.
Community
People tend to comment a lot on the Steemit community and how amazing it is. I don't know if I enjoy the community in that same way many people do. I sometimes feel that we're all just working hard for more attention. And that's probably part of how this platform works which is absolutely fine, but the fighting to be noticed isn't the most appealing part to me. For me, reading the blogs of all those others out there, so similar and yet so different but then again most of all so similar to me - it's like looking into this big mirror full of faces, all of which resemble mine a bit but also show the potential of what I could be like. All these people who I can relate to and who reflect to me what is also possible in life make me feel connected. Make me feel that at the heart of it all, at our core, we are so very close.
Around a year ago we came back from one and a half years of living at an ashram close to Bangalore, India. My time there was so full of meaning and direction and purpose. With so much clarity that increasing my sense of Oneness with life, with others, with everything is my way to experiencing the deepest richness of life. Being back and finding my way around my own country again has been great, very enjoyable and wonderful, but also a challenge. Sometimes up to the point that I'm facing my day, realise I am 30 now and that I should really get on with finding out what I want to do with my life, what I want to use it for. Then the interesting part is that life is still giving me all these experiences, all these reflections, that remind me of Oneness and how it is the only experience that makes sense. And that even though I'm not at the ashram anymore, not immersed in those spiritual teachings at this moment, still Oneness is growing on me every day. Whether it is through playing Ultimate with my team and finding that flow that allows you to perform as a collective unit. Or whether I'm on Steemit and looking at all those different faces, different experiences, and seeing how they are a reflection of me and how we share so much of what matters.
A BIG thank you
Lol, I think today I got out of bed with a bit of a dramatic streak colouring my mood. If you're still reading this, then thanks for hanging in there with me ;). And allow me to take this moment to say thanks. For this platform, allowing us to meet and get connected. For all of those bloggers and content creators out here who show me again and again how similar we are, how connected we are. And who at the same time allow me to see the world from fresh perspectives, to share in experiences that will probably never be part of my own life. Thank you to all those people interacting with me here, your comments and upvotes, the 500+ people (milestone!) who're following this account.
To me, Steemit is another one of those rare presents that life has in store for us, providing so many layers of meaning in such a simple, practical and yet beautiful way. Even giving me a space where I can share what I wanted to share, on days that my mood is just a little more dramatic than others. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of creating this place, and who is part of the community, and ultimately who is part of the same consciousness expressing in a reality that looks so diverse from the outside and which is so connected if you take a closer look.
What about you?
Do you recognise being on Steemit for a few months, still finding your way? What makes you hang on? What makes it worth your while to spend your time here, what are your short and long-term rewards? Would love to hear how the Steemit experience is enfolding for you and maybe you'll share something that makes us all even more happy to be here!
Awesome post @amritadeva. Thank you for the mention, I work hard on writing these blog posts haha.
When I first joined Steemit, this platform was more shady than it is nowadays IMO. I remember posting my blogs and videos and seemed to only get upvotes and comments from bots. That still goes on, but I am happy that I was finally able to meet real, genuine people (such as yourself) on this site that I can actually interact with.
You are right in terms of finding certain people to follow. I don't really see it as a bad thing, you are just trying to filter out all the content on this site until you feel comfortable. I am the same way. I follow about 30 people now but I am interested in their content for different reasons.
If I didn't see potential in what this blockchain could become, I never would've invested a chunk of my money (fiat and crypto) into steem power. I do believe this is the future if some issues can be ironed out. I like the Steem blockchain because I can access it without a VPN in China. China is constantly cracking down on VPNs and so now they don't work as well as they used to and it is just an annoyance to always need one and having it randomly disconnect in the middle of a download or watching a YouTube video.
It seems to me that Steemit is the future of blogging. Using wordpress to start a blog is really difficult if you want to attract any following. People don't really have an incentive to follow you, comment or visit your site on a continuous basis unless they LOVE you. At the same time, bloggers get discouraged because it is difficult to make a living off of it from ad revenue.
Steemit is going to bring bloggers together and give consumers an easy place to read whatever they want, while they can comment and earn money. I think that's awesome.
Personally speaking, this platform has allowed me to better detect people that just want attention. I am able to better decipher who is writing a comment just for an upvote and who is just commenting because they actually care about the content and want to contribute.
Anyways, this is a super long comment lol. I did read your whole blog though and wanted to answer as many points as I could.
Congratulations on 500+ followers. You joined this site later than I did but are killing me in the number of followers department hahah.
Wow! Thanks so much for your elaborate reply! That's exactly what I mean - it's this kind of interaction that makes Steemit worthwhile for me.
Thanks for sharing your perspective on the platform. I'm real happy the shadiness has diminished ;). And well sometimes I come across all these accusations and opinions which still add a bit of a dark side to Steemit. But it's great that this place is giving bloggers such a fresh kind of opportunity. It's actually helpful the way you put it. Makes me believe more in the future of the platform too!
Yeah. There are definitely some issues that haven't been resolved, but I have faith in this platform. The way it works is actually quite ingenious and is something that many people would like to see become successful.
There are many projects our there in crypto that don't deal with the problems Steemit has. The reason is because most of them don't even have a product or service yet. At least with Steem, there is a functional blockchain and we are dealing with the early issues and growing pains. This is something all the other (usually overvalued) blockchains will have to deal with in the future when they finally release something. Steem already scales and functions better than Bitcoin.
Btw, I'd really like to know more about your time in India with Paramahamsa Nithyananda. I sent you a friend request on Discord. I hope we can chat over there =)
HEY! A fellow woman from Rotterdam! Nice to meet you here - I’m glad you found reasons to stay.
I’m here because I’ve been feeling my head burst with ideas since joining Steemit, so it’s clearly a creativity accelerator for me. Having fun creating new bonds and communities on here as well! :-)
Just need way more time to do everything than I have ;-)
Good luck on finding the next 500 followers! You just gained one :-)
Awesome! Yes, really nice to meet you too!! Wow, and I absolutely love your posts. You're doing really well here :). And having your head burst with creative reasons on what to share about seems like one of the best possible reasons to be happy here at Steemit!
I love it how you've found your brand or style or theme. I think I'm still sometimes searching a bit for that. I have a lot of ideas what to write about too. But they happen quite randomly. Still looking for ways to better organise them, might also help the people who follow my account to know what they can expect. I love how you're doing series, like the slice of home series. I can see how that helps in making your blog (consistently) successful.
Do you know of (many) others from Rotterdam who are on the platform? Do you know if there's ever any get togethers happening?
Well, see you around! Definitely here on Steemit and definitely following back, and who knows maybe some time here in town :D.
Thanks for checking out my posts and glad you like them!
Yes, I do believe finding a theme or even 'look' helps people to want to follow you - on the other hand I'm now considering a second profile since I'm sort of 'scared' to disrupt my profile with other stuff I'd like to share... So that's something to consider too :-)
Repeating titles on certain days of the week could be another way to create recognition with your followers :-)
There are no meet-ups of Rotterdammers yet, but we could of course change that :D I know of one other Rotterdammer here, the lovely @ashleykalila, also a very invested Steemian on the platform :-)
Cool we now follow each other, love to see more of you!
Cheers!
Definitely. I'm going to work on my branding ;).
I actually have been thinking that it would be cool to meet up with people who are active on Steemit. Even just having a coffee together would be nice, in my opinion. I've met @exyle here, from Rotterdam too and very successful on the platform. There are definitely more, but not everybody mentions where they're from all the time :).
I mean, we could look out for some Rotterdam members, pick a date for a coffee (or something more) and make it happen? Anyways, happy to be in touch!!
Nice post
Thanks!
great post @amritadeva. I am new here (started my blog yesterday) and I also crave a genuine connection to other people. From what I've seen so far, there is a potential for it on Steemit but also SOOOO many people here to make money and get attention and it's good time wastage to go through all these posts. Authentic content is hard to find nowadays because of all the meaningless posts out there, yet it is also paradoxically overwhelmingly accessible (I don't know about you but I can't sit in front of a computer for too long.) Also wanted to let you know that you are not the only one who hasn't figured out what to do with your life, I believe one can't ever be totally sure about that, even when you have a clear plan, circumstances can shift around in a second. So enjoy where you are now, I'm learning to do just that (and how to setup a writing schedule for this new blog). You can definitely count me in as a new follower :)
Thank you for this post! I'm a new member here, just finding my way around. I love social media, so, why not. And why not follow some interesting content such as yours? Keep up the good work!
Welcome! And thanks! Good luck on the platform!
Any time.
Hi @maddiedee !! I missed your comment somehow, sorry for that! Thanks for a lovely reply to this earlier post!! Yes, finding quality content is to give your upvotes to and quality content producers to give your follows to - that is one of the very real challenges of Steemit. It takes some getting used to. Also, there are a lot of people doing awesome curation work, which can really help you find new creators who you can connect with. I'd give you a follow back, but seems you didn't post for a while. Are you still around on Steemit? Let me know, and we can keep in touch!
Hi there, I was traveling and away from the computer for a while, but I'm back now :). Will try to post something new soon.