Following some people always bothered me for some reason. For one, it can be translated into genuine interest about the content of the person producing it. Take another look though in the power distribution and one will find out that people follow the whales so they can get upvotes.
Whales of course have become desensitized with this, especially after watching every single "average mortal" trying to make some profit. It is obvious that some content is really good and deserving of upvotes but most of the content being heavily upvoted is a result of whale circlejerking and old time insiders milking the system.
I really like Steemit as a technology. Heck, I even like some people in here. Nonetheless the economics started making me feel nauseated. I don't hide that I gave links to people for upvotes but I believe this is not only becoming annoying but kinda of a "zero sum shilling". A whale can upvote only that much. It has to be selective. You also need to keep appearances and is just not me. Generally, I dislike most people.
I could pick close communities and write articles like Steemstem and get fat upvotes but even there one has to keep appearances, be political, throw some smiles and cash out. I am not specific to Steemstem. I believe every single organised group works more or less like that.
I prefer from now on to visit the pages of people I like manually. I will vote regularly and honestly to content I really enjoy. I understand this is not the way this game is played and I will probably get burned on the reward thingy but there is special kind of satisfaction knowing you are owning yourself. I also want to contact an experiment which I cannot reveal right now.
Thank you all (whales or not) for your support so far. Unfollowing doesn't mean I don't like you or anything. You will see my genuine "like" if I comment on your posts.