Steemit Is Not A Social Media Platform, It’s A Database

Yes, this could have been done way better
Hi everyone,

My account is since 2 days ago a year old. And while I took a veryyyyyyy (emphasis on the y) long break I’m noticing a huge difference in how I approached Steemit before my break and after.

A year ago I got sucked into the marvelous digital world that’s called cryptocurrency. Wanting to become the next crypto guru, I of course started exploring other options than merely Bitcoin or Ethereum - my god did I make some mistakes - and Steemit was certainly one of them that drew my attention. A social media platform that rewarded the creation of content, “let’s go!” was my first thought. I used to have a small blog where I talked about monetizing web-related things so I thought, well I can do this. I was right and wrong at the same time…

The part that was right: yes, I could write content and while my articles where pretty standard: 7 ways to add 7 ways in your 7 titles of your 7 blog articles (see what I did there). There was no one that read them, nor did they got any chance being read looking like “copy-pastas” between a pile of “copy-pastas”. As that didn’t work, I tried giving the platform a more social-media approach, sharing pictures of my bunny (I don’t regret anything, she’s cute AF). As this wasn’t proving to be fruitful either I basically did the same as everyone with a low reputation account, I gave up and eventually even forgot that I had a Steemit account.

tell me that isn't cute?

Now fast forward to a few months ago, I wanted to play more video games like the good old days, but being an adult and responsible and shit there was not really anyone around to play games with. So I decided to resort to streaming, not with the idea of becoming the next big streamer (though, I could pull it of, have you seen how freaking awesome my hair is...), but simply to find some people to interact with while gaming, everything is more fun if you have someone to talk too (except for toilet breaks maybe).

Not wanting to stream on Twitch because there are already so many streamers there I tried finding some smaller platforms. Great was my surprise when I found DLive, “why not give it a go” I thought, “I already have a steemit account anyway”. I didn’t took into account that finding my steemit key would be an endeavour that made any “Finding Wally” book look like a stroll in the park. Nonetheless, I managed to log in and started streaming some video games while I was playing.

And the most magical thing happened, people started going to my started watching my stream,chatting, upvoting and the whole shebang. It all gave me a warm fuzzy feeling inside. However, there was one thing I thought was peculiar. How come, people started upvoting my stream while my account never got any attention on the platform before. In the beginning it didn’t hit me but then I figured it out: Steemit is not a social media platform, it’s a database. One that is proving to be an amazing tool for platforms to be build upon.

If you take a look at the somewhat bigger accounts, you’ll quickly notice that the majority of the people that interact with them are often the same. While I certainly don’t want to marginalise their content it shows that the most important thing is simply connecting to people and networking. The problem, however, is simply that Steemit isn’t optimized for networking, and neither should it be

Steemit is a platform that is a representation of the blockchain. The possibilities on there are always public and you’ll see that people are not really tend to have a friendly chit-chat about any topic on their mind. While you do have a follow, share (resteem) and follow option. The platform itself is limited when it comes to more heart warming, down to earth interaction. What the platform does give, and this is where the biggest power of Steemit lays, are the tools for you to implement Steemit’s functionality in any new or existing project.

As a result we are seeing more and more web services that implement or are even completely build upon these tools. And there, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, is where the real networking happens. As more tools are created we Steemarians are more drawn to the one that appeal to us and easily find a mutual interest with the users of that platform. And while if you create content on there the “post” might get buried on Steemit, but will be very visible on said Platform.

So to wrap it up (tl;dr because I know you started skimming instead of reading after the second paragraph) try some of the platform that utilize Steemits functionality. You’d be surprised how easy it is to connect to other Steemians and how fun it actually can be. Anyway I’m going to leave it at that. All of you are amazing and if you ever pass by my Vimm or DLive channel be sure to hit that chatbox and say “Hi”. I’ll gladly take the time to talk with you about the small, the weather, the daily new, quantum physics,.. That sort of things (Please don’t start talking about Quantum physics)

---

Shoutouts:

Vimm: a streaming platform in alpha, make sure to give it a spin, they'd love to hear what you think about the platform
dlive: a streaming platform not so alpha anymore, with a growing community and the most lovable and helpful discord channel
@smooms
@whack.science
@lanabear
Last but not least: @chiren, I think I owe you a few shoutouts ;)