It was a lot different when I joined. Back then it was almost all quality content creators and unfortunately that's changed. They started pushing the social media aspect advertising it like Fakebook only you get paid. People come on with unrealistic expectations and start begging for upvotes and followers. Needless to say that kind of pisses the people that work hard off- they're only hurting themselves.

Keep the community thing in the forefront and you'll do well. Like you said- the world is what we make it. There's no perfect world, but people like you and other community spirited people can make it better- Steemit is a microcosm of the rest of the world!