A Few Thoughts About Steem, The Toxicity of Social Media and How Grateful I Am For the Blockchain
I am going to put that out there before I even begin. I love the shit out of Steem. Where have you people been all of my life? The longer I am on here, the more people that I read and the more engagement that I am part of, I am repeatedly blown away. People are nice, people think on here, people are socially conscious and truly want to help others. It's not the norm. . . At least not in my world.
Social Cravings
My time on the internet has been a harsh life indeed. Born of the age where I remember a time before any household computer in the home, to integration, to necessity and reliance, my relationship with the web has been tenuous. We got our first computer when I was maybe 11? Even then, being the early 90s, I was the cool kid. I remember in 6th grade we had to begin to do assignments on the computer. We were the first class of our middle school that typing on a computer was required and it was a push to get most kids to have access. Since we had a computer I remember being able to charge 6.00 a page for typed cover sheets that included a standard image from old-school Word. We are talking non-fancy clip art.
We are talking like this:
Let Me Tell You A Secret
If I could find the seedier side of the internet without any effort. It's like a secret power or something.
Social media has forever been a bane in my life. As a social creature that happens to type fast and be at a computer all of the time, I am fond of chatting online. It all started with the chatrooms of Prodigy, Netscape and finally (You've Got Mail) AOL. When I was a teenager, I found 40 year old guys looking for a break from their wives. They gave me attention and I didn't think about the implications. Then as a pregnant 20 year old, I would argue with other moms on the pregnant board. Let me tell you, women who are pregnant and new to the internet, that can't type as fast to keep up in a chat room... Oi! Talk about a nightmare. Then there was MySpace.
That was interesting because at one point, I used to blog a lot on there and my own mother broke onto my account and erased like 20 writings, changed my page and updated my status to, "Let's Go Maverick!" I can't make this shit up. You see, jokingly, I had updated my status on my page to say, "I can see Russia from my house!" and apparently that offended dear old mom. She got upset and then hacked my account. While it was impressive for a woman that was basically a ludite up until that election, I was as impressed as I was pissed. That was about the time I closed MySpace down and opted for Yahoo Answers only (don't get me started) until I found FaceBook.
The Madness of Social Media
I won't lie, I still like my FaceBook. It has it's uses. It has also had it's moments where it made me want to chuck my laptop across the room. There is just typically something toxic about the whole system. These days I mainly use social media for business. I didn't even bother with Instagram until I needed to for blogging and a marketing job I had as a freelancer. I still use it as it is impressive to clients sometimes, but I also wear many hats.
There is this sort of circular circus that happens on social media platforms.
Of course, there is a share of it on Steem, since we do live in the same universe as all of the other social media platforms. However, I am coming to see why Steem is different. I didn't believe it in the beginning, but there really does seem to be a huge group of people on here with an open minded perspective, that share their own experiences simply to help others, those that go out of their way to create a dynamic space in a gifting economy and that want to do their part to grow, while pulling up those around them. Am I on the wrong boards on other social media platforms? Have I been doing it wrong? It just seems to me that there is a higher caliber base of people on here and I can't help but wonder when did this happen?
What Do You Mean People Aren't Assholes?
Of course, I know that there are plenty of undesirables out there. Hell, I have plenty of moments, given that I am a blogger, I do marketing, I participate in the toxic social universe all of the time... where I am an asshole doing my part in the cycle of assholery. Then I come to Steem and I have to check myself before I wreck myself.
I find that while many people are out for themselves, there is this hidden stash of individuals, and not just one or two of them, there is a whole congregation of them! They are on here doing contests to boost others, they are starting awesome group focused communities like @MinnowSupport, they are promoting art and coding and business and life and all sorts of things. They are just people living their lives, not being assholes.
How Novel!
The concept isn't new, but is is certainly refreshing. I have gotten into the habit of coming on here and before I post anything emo, I think about it. I consider what I write and how it contributes. Sure, it might not be rocket science and I may not be putting the solution for world hunger or free energy out in the world, but I do my part to put something out on Steem that I feel can at least have a positive impact. Sometimes that may even mean posting some emo shit, especially if I feel like my perspective could help or be relatable with another.
It affects my mindset, to remind myself that I do have control of these things called emotions and I have a choice before I have a knee-jerk reaction. The fact that there are the people on here that are doing good things, that are being mindful and that are supportive of personal growth means that conversations can happen, instead of arguments. It allows for dialogue instead of diatribes. It's pretty rad. For me, personally, I know it has an impact on how I relate to the world and how I manage myself, even when I do get a little rage happy.
Ultimately, it is like having a secure little compound in the world of interwebs. Here people are good people and they care. They are supportive and kind. It's always good to have support to back you up. We all need it sometimes!
Please Allow Me to Share an Example
The other day on a Discord board that Steem people frequent, I had asked a quetion. It was an honest question about what came to mind when I said the word, "Guru". I asked if the people in the room thought of men or women with this word. It is my experience that usually people think of men when they hear the word, whereas women they don't often associate it. It isn't that women can't be gurus or that they aren't... it seems to me that generally people think of the religious leaders, cult leaders or even Mike Meyers (Love Guru). When I ask what about women, they say they can be but that they didn't think that first.
In this room, one woman said that she thought of a man or a woman - but that didn't answer my question. I asked for an example and they gave me the name of two goddesses. This didn't fit in my mind as an appropriate answer, because really are the gods also gurus, in the true sense of the word? So, I dug deeper asking them to expand upon their answer and I realized I had actually asked, "Do you think of a man or woman when I say GURU" and that was leading. Well, it led to a brick wall and all of a sudden this woman was saying that I was trying to fit my own ideas and I wanted to be disproven. In any case, that wasn't the deal at all and I tried to explain why I was asking and then she, quite rudely, told me if I had question why was I asking anyway and go look up Google. I won't lie, I was offended and pissed. The banter went back and forth for a minute before I just said to myself that it wasn't worth it and signed off. She was perhaps the rudest person associated with Steem because she was dismissive, talked down and came off as being needlessly aggressive. Normally, I love squashing those people. I know I shouldn't but there is this reaction inside me, and if I don't stop and think, I tend to just snap. When you type 130 words a minute, you can say a lot of shit before you think.
I didn't though. I thought about it later. Becuase at the time it isn't like I was like, "Now, Rohanna, come on... this is Steem, be nice, think about them, maybe they are having a bad day or maybe you rubbed them the wrong way with how you asked your question or maybe they don't like you, but they don't know you so who cares?" No, I just sort of instinctively shot it down. I told her that I didn't appreciate her being rude and that I was sorry I offended. I kind of left it at that and was done with it. My brain, on autopilot, is a nicer person on Steem, I think.
Is that even possible?
My brain says it is and when I thought about it later, I was okay with that. The world needs more places that make us stop and think. the world needs more places where people can come together and agree to disagree and just walk away if needed. We live in a trigger-happy universe it seems and places, where you can be you, without having to worry about being judged up the wazoo, is rare.
So thank you for that. Like, really. I have nothing but latitudes of gratitudes for this platform.
I am really appreciative of that, especially now, today. I needed to know that place existed and was easy to access today. Instead of writing what I was going to write, posting shit that didn't need to be broadcast and vibrate out towards the universe is on lock and gratitude, truly appreciating gratitudes are out there vibrating their way towards wherever they go instead. I believe this is more positive and thank you all for the opportunity.
References:
Astro Love (gif1) was created by me.
Images not created by me were ourced or taken from Google as labeled for reuse and Know Your Meme.
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