Yesterday I celebrated my first anniversary on Steemit. It's been a fun year, though I do hear cries of distress around me. The concern is that the platform does not attract enough new users, and that when it does attract users, these accounts often become inactive.
Many community members are trying to improve the Steemit environment. They design contests where bloggers can create content, interact with each other, and earn rewards. These contests foster enthusiasm, and engagement. Yet, overall, the efforts of committed Steemians have not filled the energy vacuum that apparently plagues the platform. Why?
I'm fairly certain Steemit Inc. isn't deliberately sabotaging its own business. Unfortunately, their operating model seems to be doing just that. Now, I'm no financial guru, but I do have a theory about what ails Steemit. The company has not made the transition from being an investment, startup opportunity to being an engine that sustains itself organically. Key to becoming that engine would be utilization of basic marketing techniques, informed by current research in neuroscience.
Dopamine 
What Do Facebook and Twitter Know That Steemit Doesn't? 
The role of dopamine in the brain was identified only about sixty years ago. That's pretty amazing, considering how thoroughly the idea of this neurotransmitter has permeated popular culture. Most people realize that dopamine is influential in the development of addictions, and that some psychotropic medications target dopamine receptors in the brain. Less commonly acknowledged is the fact that dopamine receptors are also targeted by skilled marketers. Included among these savvy audience manipulators are social networking platforms. The platforms' designs depend on the dopamine reward system to hook and keep their users.
That is, all platforms except Steemit.
Thank You Steemit 
Let me stop right now and clarify my motive for writing this post. This is not a screed against Steemit Inc. I've had a great year on this platform and I'm grateful for that. Please consider my post to be an intervention.
This is my Steemit family, and I want my family to thrive.
Dopamine and the Reward System 
An understanding of how dopamine affects behavior has evolved. It used to be that scientists believed dopamine was the enjoyment chemical, the reason we feel pleasure when we engage in certain activities. Turns out, dopamine may play a more significant role in conditioning responses. It may set the stage for the way we behave. According to behavioral psychologist Susan Weinschenk, "Dopamine increases your general level of arousal and your goal-directed behavior". 1
One area Dr. Weinschenk addresses specifically in her work is social media addiction. She explains that we keep repeating behavior on social media--scrolling through our texts, our responses, our contexts--because of the dopamine release our activity prompts. Dr. Weinshenk suggests that we don't voluntarily stop engaging in these activities unless we are interrupted--or until we reach satiety. But in her view, there is no point at which satiety is reached. Hence, we get caught in what she calls the dopamine-seeking loop. This 'loop' is at the heart of social media addiction.
The Virtual Hug 
The little girls in the picture are likely receiving massive doses of dopamine with that vigorous hug. According to Mauricio Delgado, neuroscientist at Rutgers University, “The same brain areas [that are activated for food and water] are activated for social stimuli.” 2 A smile , a hug, a positive gesture in the physical universe of day-to-day living--all prompt the release of dopamine and elicit sensations of pleasure.
Dr. Delgado explains that, in the context of social media, 'likes' are reinforcers. Not only are they primary sources of pleasure (because of the dopamine release) but they also become motivators to reengage, to repeat the positive experience (of dopamine release).
Upvotes, Dopamine, and Steemit
If we apply what we know about dopamine and conditioned responses to Steemit, upvotes would equal 'likes'. According to Dr. Delgado and Dr. Weinshenk, the more 'upvotes' people give and receive, the more likely they are to engage. It would seem to be in the interest of Steemit, therefore, to have a great availability of upvotes, even if there is no financial incentive tied to each vote. Engagement--users--are the lifeblood of the platform. In order to survive and grow, Steemit needs to tap into the dopamine reward system, as Facebook and Twitter do.
The Neuroscience of Positive Reinforcement 
A succinct and informative video (2 minutes!) I came across explains the role of the nucleus accumbens in signalling rewards in the brain.
Research on Facebook specifically shows that when users get positive feedback, a part of their brain called the nucleus accumbens lights up. The more intensely involved a user is with Facebook, the greater the response. As shown in the diagram above, the nucleus accumbens plays a central role in the brain's reward circuitry.
Scientists at Harvard looked further into users' experience on Facebook and fine-tuned the connection to the dopamine reward system. What these researchers discovered was that people love to talk about themselves on social media. Brain scans conducted during episodes of personal sharing revealed a stronger response in the nucleus accumbens than during other types of engagement. As a matter of fact, users actually were willing to "forgo money to disclose about the self."3
Reward Cues Guide Behavior
In 2011, a pair of researchers from the University of North Carolina took a look at the nucleus accumbens and classic behavioral conditioning. They wanted to distinguish between different phases of reward activation. Their conclusion? The nucleus accumbens processes information about responses-- and cues. This processing "can be used to ultimately guide behaviors toward rewards".4 Note, the cute dog in the picture above is showing strong response to a cue, not to actual food consumption. This is the sort of information that guides the operation of Facebook and Twitter. It's the kind of information Steemit needs to mine in order to organically grow the platform.
Confessions of a Facebook Guru 
Sean Parker, one of the founders of Facebook, attended an event in 2018 at which he talked about the operating principles that keep the Facebook engine running. He explained that hooking into the brain's reward circuitry was, from Facebook's inception, a conscious decision. There was an awareness that likes, comments and other interaction would reward users with "a little dopamine hit." 5. Parker admits the network's creators were aware that their platform had the potential to be addictive. In his words, Facebook was "exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology".6
The area labeled VTA stands for ventral tegmental area. Both the VTA and the nucleus accumbens play critical roles in the dopamine reward system. Dopamine neurons travel from the nucleus accumbens and the VTA to other areas of the brain (as shown) through several pathways. (There's another two-minute video available on Youtube that gives a clear and succinct description of the VTA's role).
Beware the Perils of Disappointment
While dopamine release is associated with rewards, the anticipation of reward (as shown in the dog picture earlier in this blog) alone is strongly stimulative, even stronger than the experience itself. According to an article published in the Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, "Activation in ventral striatum is more strongly associated with the anticipation of reward than the actual receipt. "7. In this anticipation/reward relationship there is peril for marketers, and for social media platforms. It seems, that, "when anticipation is met with disappointment, the brain learns to refrain from engaging with that content" (Delgado). 8
Steemit and Dopamine
I think active Steemians would agree that the platform does not use the dopamine reward system effectively, if it uses it at all. The basic tool of engagement, voting, is tightly rationed. And other forms of engagement--commenting and blogging--are limited by the amount of resource credits a user has to 'spend'. New users are virtually paralyzed.
Rather than encouraging an unlimited stream of engagement points--which would reinforce the dopamine-seeking loop--Steemit starves users. Engagement becomes punitive, rather than rewarding. Not only is the dopamine reward system bypassed, but disappointment becomes almost a common experience for new accounts. And, as we learned from Dr. Delgado, disappointment conditions users to refrain from further engagement.
I'm not advocating that we make social media "junkies" out of users. What would be wise though, is establishing an operating model that incentivizes engagement. There is nothing nefarious about that.
The Future
The founders of Steemit were innovative and visionary. They were entrepreneurs who knew how to attract investors. As a startup, they were smashingly successful. But they didn't have a plan for attracting people who weren't investors, people who would want to join the platform and remain engaged in the platform for the sheer pleasure of it.
In order for Steemit to grow it needs users. The formula for getting and keeping users is not a mystery. Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram all tap into the dopamine reward system. If Steemit wants to make money through advertising, for example, it needs the numbers to bring in the advertisers and get a good reimbursement rate from those advertisers.
And users who don't invest in crypto initially, might be incentivized to buy after becoming familiar with the concept of crypto and the Steemit platform.
My Anniversary: Why Have I Stayed on Steemit?
I guess the primary reason I'm here and plan to stay is, my dopamine reward system is tapped every time I create. That can be a science blog, a picture, or a story. Also have 'met' wonderful people here, and I want to keep meeting them.
Steemit is important to some users as a source of income. That's important to me. I care about these people, and I like the idea that this platform offers opportunity to people.
Finally, it would be nice to make money. Wouldn't it be great if the price of Steemit took off?
Thank you to all on this platform--scientists, creative writers, artists, linguists, historians, photographers, casual bloggers--who make engaging here one of the bright spots in my day.
Accent Art, not Otherwise Credited: Paint 3d
Footnotes
1 The Dopamine Seeking-Reward Loop
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/brain-wise/201802/the-dopamine-seeking-reward-loop
2 Is Social Media as Addictive as Sugar?
https://discoverorganically.com/social-media-addictive-sugar/
3 Study: Social Media Fires Up Brain's Pleasure Center
https://www.lifewire.com/social-media-stimulates-brain-pleasure-centers-2655245
4 The Nucleus Accumbens and Pavlovian Reward Learning
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3130622/)
5 The Guardian, Has Dopamine Got Us Hooked on Tech?
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/04/has-dopamine-got-us-hooked-on-tech-facebook-apps-addiction)
6 The Guardian, Ex-Facebook President Sean Parker: Site Made to Exploit Human 'Vulnerability'
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/nov/09/facebook-sean-parker-vulnerability-brain-psychology
7 Neuroanatomy of Dopamine: Reward and Addiction
https://neuro.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.neuropsych.24.1.1
8 Getting to the “Like” – The Importance of Not Being a Disappointment When It Comes to your Social Media Content
https://foxiedigital.com/2015/11/23/getting-to-the-like-the-importance-of-not-being-a-disappointment-when-it-comes-to-your-social-media-content/
Some Sources Used in Writing This Post
Indian Journal of Psychiatry, Arvid Carlsson, and the Story of Dopamine
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2824994/
Cambridge University Press, Transporters, receptors, and enzymes as targets of psychopharmacological drug action
http://stahlonline.cambridge.org/essential_4th_chapter.jsf?page=chapter2_summary.htm&name=Chapter%202&title=Summary
Psychiatric Times: Dopamine Receptors in the Human Brain https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/neuropsychiatry/dopamine-receptors-human-brain sychiatric Times: Dopamine Receptors in the Human Brain*
Know Your Brain Reward System: Neurologically Challenged
https://www.neuroscientificallychallenged.com/blog/know-your-brain-reward-system
Psychology Today, The Dopamine Seeking-Reward Loop
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/brain-wise/201802/the-dopamine-seeking-reward-loop
American Marketing Association (This page has inexplicably disappeared!)
https://www.ama.org/publications/MarketingNews/Pages/feeding-the-addiction.aspx
2-Minute Neuroscience: Nucleus Accumbens
Buffer: The Secret Psychology of Facebook: Why We Like, Share, Comment and Keep Coming Back
https://blog.bufferapp.com/psychology-of-facebook
The Pleasure Centres Affected by Drugs
http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/i/i_03/i_03_cr/i_03_cr_par/i_03_cr_par.html
Study: Social Media Fires Up Brain's Pleasure Center
https://www.lifewire.com/social-media-stimulates-brain-pleasure-centers-2655245
Neuroscientists: The Nucleus Accumbens and Pavlovian Reward Learning
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3130622/
The Guardian, Has Dopamine Got Us Hooked on Tech?https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/04/has-dopamine-got-us-hooked-on-tech-facebook-apps-addiction
The Guardian, Ex-Facebook President Sean Parker: Site Made to Exploit Human 'Vulnerability
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/nov/09/facebook-sean-parker-vulnerability-brain-psychology
Neuroscientifically Challenged: Know Your Brain: Ventral Tegmental Area
https://www.neuroscientificallychallenged.com/blog/know-your-brain-ventral-tegmental-area
2-Minute Neuroscience: Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA)
News Medical Life Sciences, What is Dopamine?
https://www.news-medical.net/health/What-is-Dopamine.aspx
Indian Journal of Psychiatry, The Story of Dopamine
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2824994/
Simply Psychology, Pavlov's Dogs
https://www.simplypsychology.org/pavlov.html