This place has changed a lot in the two years I have been on the platform but also, not much at all. Sometimes I wonder how far it will actually go and how ingrained and intertwined Steem can become in the digital crossover lives we all lead. For those that remember the mainstreaming of the internet, did you actually predict what you would be doing in the future via it?
When was the last time you booked a trip through a travel agent and how often do you purchase tickets of any kind through a human face, not an interface? How often do you go to a bank, the cinema, talk to someone to order takeaway? What percentage of your interactions and transactions are human versus digitally facilitated? What happened to all of those customer service jobs when companies decided no contact was better? Was it company - or customer demand that made that decision?
In our day to day lives, there has been a massive decrease in our chances of random meetings and therefore, a decrease in our pool of selection. There is a silo effect on the walking world and we are conditioned to believe that we actually have more opportunity of connection through digital acquaintances yet, the algorithms silo us further.
While the statistics are showing progress, are we actually enjoying a higher quality of life? I remember from a kid that one of the quality of life indicators was the number of TVs in the home. Is that something. One considers an indicator of quality these days, how many screens the is access to, or is there a law of diminishing returns somewhere in there? Is quality of life how much time can be spent gaming or consuming Netflix, what percentage of disposal income is spent on junk food, how many gadgets one can afford to free up hands while carrying for children? What is quality of life and how can it be measured through access to disposable consumables?
I see this as a part of the lie we have been sold the one we happily purchased in a thousand ways, the TV shop definition of quality. Quality of life can be purchased, it is easy, just send your money and in 7 minutes you will have a better quality of experience because you could afford to buy it. Can't afford it? Keep working, keep chasing, be jealous of those who can, desire it for yourself, slave away for your chance to have it.
I think this is how many people use and experience Steem as rather than utilise it as a part of life experience itself, it is nothing more than a means to an end, a way to fast track into desire fulfillment without the need to work as hard for it. I am hoping they are right, hoping it is a fast track but, I am definitely no slave on Steem, there is a difference.
There is can chance to not only satisfy financial requirements but take ownership of interactions and recalibrate what is demanded to affect what is supplied. People like to blame the evil banks and corporations yet, it is us who purchase what they sell, us who keep perpetuating the lie that consumables are the evidence of quality of life, even if one must go into debt to possess them and keep slaving away to keep them.
I say possess because holding is not owning unless what is held one has control over. The only thing we really can control is how we experience the circumstances of our life, but even that is being wrested from us as we are incessantly told we are powerless victims, not active agents of our own lives.
Victims do not own, they are owned. Unable to help themselves, unable to control the direction of their lives, dependant on the services and products of others that ease their burden and carry them for a price. A price that will continually increase into an unserviceable debt until the owner desires to dispose of its consumable items, us.
What happens when we choose to control our own interactions and transactions, choose what has tradeable value and where we will place it, choose to review and evaluate our purchases up until this point, realise we chose poorly and, choose again? What happens when we choose to take responsibility and be part of the design, not the designed?
How far can we go on the choices we make?
Quality of life does have a price, it just can't be purchased. People want easy and you get what you pay for - the life of a slave is simple, do what you are told.
Or make another choice, but everything carries a cost.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
(posted from phone)