I am now going to write a long and elaborate comment to show you I read your post, so that many people can upvote it and start following me for my insightfulness.
But also!
The world outside of Steemit isn't so different. Each and every second there are countless self-serving acts taking place across the Earth.
This. I have no illusion that not everyone on Steemit is genuine. I do know that this is true for the real world out there aswell. It's just that in the real world, people need more acting skills than just pretty words. In the end, what matters most is that you have fun on the platform and I do think that, the longer you know someone, the easier it becomes to see their true intentions.
And if no one had to worry about money... we'd have way too much time to complain and point out all that is wrong in the world! And then there would always be this little thing called power that people seem to enjoy. I'm sure that would help obscure intentions.
I have part of a head-universe where people have everything they need (more or less) in the immediate environment or easily enough accessible, and
that was pretty much exactly what I found in there XD
Haha, yeah, humans are hard to keep happy, even if they have all the money in the world!
I'm with you. I actually wrote a paragraph about it being easier to discern someone's true motivations when you can see their face, but I edited it out in the end. But, yes. It's much more difficult on here. Perhaps though, in time, it will become easier to read people through text, the longer I do it.
Could be. Practice makes perfect, or something like that :-)