Being quite new on Steemit (and exited so far but too early for a solid review) I felt like looking back at my career in the world of Social networks. It seems that my relations with various social networks ended up more or less like my relations with all my ex girlfriends...not for the same reasons though :)
It all started started with a very short period on FB. This was way before the global FB hysteria (more than a decade ago). A friend insisted that I should join and after a couple of months I knew I should leave it behind. Some creepy terms and conditions about the photos, invitations from my schoolmates about all shorts of BS and not much interest in general helped me decide it's over. Back in the day you couldn't just delete your account but only deactivate it. FB was sued about that and gave this option later if I am not mistaken. This was enough for me to hate the whole thing and Mark Z. himself really made me sure about that.
The first social network I joined and used for good was the good ol' Myspace. This poor thing was maybe just unlucky to be the first one. Opened the road for the next ones, had all the social features needed, only to become an internet ghost later overtaken by less decent platforms.
After Myspace I started a blogspot in the beginning of 2011. FB hysteria was already counting a few years and everybody was asking for my FB as they used to do for my mobile number. Most of the times their reaction to me replying "I don't have FB" was as if I have said "I don't have a phone". It's the same people who made a guy like Mark multibillionaire, they created the monstrosity of "you're not on FB = you don't exist" and now they cry for their "lost privacy". At least Jews didn't vote for Hitler...you know what I mean...
I was more than happy to see Google joining the social game in mid 2011. Not because I am a brand patriot (though I could with all the help Google maps have offered me as a travelling biker all these years) but an alternative is always good to have. And G+ was not just an alternative but a better one when it started. More good looking than FB with all the social features needed. Too good to be true? Unfortunately. For undisclosed reasons (if you know more please enlighten me) Google started desocialising it bit by bit. They took out the Photos to a separate app/site, they separated the messenger as well (Hangouts) and after years of castration they led it to a dead end. A petabyte of WTFs is not enough to comment this.
I must mention at this point two of the greatest things I ever discovered around the net, social related. One is Jango, about a decade ago. Amazing free internet radio, customizable with social features and interaction between members. It was playing all day long in my house. I discovered so much great music and great people in it and I even uploaded my tracks (it hosted independent artists too). One more "too good to be true". At some point they stopped its social features, put FB login, castrated it and I don't even (want to) know how it ended up. The other great thing, a true game changer is Couchsurfing. It is the platform I use the longest time (more than a dozen of years) and it's a hospitality exchange site. It is not as good as it used to be but mainly because of the abuse of the users themselves and less from the abuse of its new owners. Well, when it comes to people they know how to ef it up big time :) However, the nicest ones are in it. You just have to be picky enough to find them.
2 years ago I was proposed Mewe.com but I found it missing basic stuff and I had no time to wait when/if they fine tune it. I wonder why they even decide to release such an unready thing.
Steemit seems to have an architecture able to attract decent users at the moment and also the way it works seems to isolate the unavoidable BS like a glass of water does to a drop of oil. Curious to see how it will go in the future.
Now begs the question...why the F we evolved so much technologically, only to not be able to see any of the above good things survive as nicely as they used or could. Maybe because we didn't evolve as much on the rest of the aspects of our lives...