Once you find your groove (and decent follows) you will have plenty to read.
One trick you might like:
https://steemit.com/@tarazkp/feed
That is my feed so you can see what I see. All you need to do is replace my account name with any other account and you can view their feed. It is an easy way to avoid having to go through new or trending to find people. Also, in the comments section you will find the people who will engage well. interact with them, not just the author.
I thank you for this suggestion, and I will use it. I find that the new and trending pages really don't give me the substance I'm looking for, so I can definitely use this insight. It makes life a lot easier than scrolling through dozens of posts before I find something I think is a worth ten to fifteen minutes of reading, then the additional three to five minutes responding to content. I'll definitely continue to make the effort to read through the comment section as I've found most of my payout has come from commenting rather than my blogs. I look forward to reading more from you in the near future! Thanks for the insight and for the responses.