If you have joined Steemit.com in hope of making lots of money without doing any work, I suggest looking at the hundreds of ads online that offer exactly the same thing because you will stand to make just as much money doing the same amount of work there, and you don't even have to understand what cryptocurrency or the blockchain is!
Sure, the Steem price has just hit record highs (as predicted by many) and one can't help but think there are greater forces at work than what the humble minnows can comprehend. But those that has been around long enough also know that this platform is prone to the same economic forces at work because ultimately it is still run by people (for now I think), and when the bots do take over I am sure there will be a fairer reward system.
On a more serious note, if you have come in search of Steem but managed to find some like-minded steemians, then I think you are in luck. I have spent very little time on social media thus far because there are simply too many memes and cat videos to watch even if you were interested in them, but on Steemit I know that there are many people who are not normally on social media that have joined in search of interesting people from around the world.
Sure, there are going to be people who found a way to exploit the system and make lots of money from it, but I think we call them geniuses and entrepreneurs sometimes, and other times we call them frauds and many other names. But they exist because we fail to embrace the values that are supposed to matter most to this community, which opens doors for people to prey on our insecurities and vulnerabilities.
I still stand by the values that I proposed for a manifesto, and I hope that there will be more people who will come to see this as the best way to move forward. Here it is again in full:
We are uncovering better ways of improving society by
posting on Steemit and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:
Individuals and interactions over bots and wallets
Giving and sharing with others over adding to your own account
Purposeful collaboration over contests and competitions
Increase content value over Steem price value
That is, while there is value in the items on the right,
we value the items on the left more.
From Manifesto for a better social media - for steemitopia and fellow steemians (UPDATE)
https://steemit.com/steemit/@plushzilla/manifesto-for-a-better-social-media-for-steemitopia-and-fellow-steemians-update