Steemit is a brilliant idea, but I couldn't help being reminded of the 'Nosedive' episode, especially since I learned about Steem so recently and JUST watched this episode of Black Mirror.
Nosedive takes place in a dystopian world where everyone is judged and given merit in life based on a social network rating system, where every person is given a score between 1 and 5 from their peers. I won't bother recapping the whole episode if you haven't seen it, but the important part is that there's a strong incentive to align yourselves with people of higher social value in order to bring your own score up.
Now, the reason this reminded me of Steem is because the influence system here acts in the same way, except in straight monetary terms. If I am able to attract the attention of higher esteemed users, that will bring my own score up, right? And likewise--if I had a HIGH Steam Power, why would I waste that on lower esteemed people when I could instead be schmoozing and climbing the ranks.
(
So, what's the point of this post? It's to ask a few simple questions:
What psychological effects does the existence of steam power have on individuals? Ie, what incentives does it set up for users?
Why should the opinions of influencers (people with high SP) necessarily be more highly valued? Especially considering you can easily buy influence.
Has Steemit created a culture where high power users are only incentivized to interact with other high power users? Will we see a massive disparity in influence, akin to the "1%" in the real world? And if so, is this necessarily bad for the 99%?
Hope this brings some interesting discussion, especially for other Black Mirror fans out there. If you haven't seen the episode in a while, do yourself a favor and go watch it!
Oh, and at the risk of extreme irony, FOLLOW ME! ;)
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