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Hey everyone! I’m new here to the Steemit platform and for my introductory post, I thought I’d be honest. I’m a bit skeptical of Steemit, because I’m wary of social media in general. The benefits seem great though! Already, with the steem incentive in mind I’m finding inspiration and drive to pursue and document subjects that interest me, and to the best of my ability. Although seeing other platforms aid in the spread of dangerous propaganda, internet bullying, greed, and – yes I’m sounding pessimistic here - I’m wondering how Steemit overcomes these issues. If you have ideas on this, please share them because…
We are in the middle of a revolution y’all!! How cool is that? What a great time to be alive. In my lifetime (born in 80’s), I’ve seen personal computers become commonplace, the internet rise to power, life before cell phones which are now a technology people of any income level depend on. In some ways this technology integration into our lives has felt seemless, while at other times very turbulent. And it’s only just beginning!
You Steemiters are probably aware that this change does indeed have a classification. The digital revolution we have been experiencing since the mid 20th century has been referred to as the Third Industrial Revolution^1. People, enterprise, and most industries, are starting to recognize that today’s technological advances – Internet Of Things, AI, VR, Blockchain, to name a few – are not a continuation of the Third Industrial Revolution but rather a new, distinct one^2. Behold, the Fourth Industrial Revolution. We are at the cusp of experiencing faster and more expansive change than ever. Steemy.
As with rapid changes in human ways of life, a lot of people get left out of the fervor, for better or for worse. The human part of this story is ultimately most important. Working to mitigate the potentially devastating inequality gap expansion is a challenge all of us must take on. There are a lot of hopes around blockchain serving to help address this (along with many, many other things), and I wonder – what do you think? Where do you think Steemit fits into this picture?
Here is a great video by the World Economic Forum (Weforum.org) about the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which by the way is a concept first presented by Klaus Schwab two years ago in his book, The Fourth Industrial Revolution. Interestingly, they don’t mention blockchain in this video.. does it not have a place in this revolution?
I'd like to hear other people’s opinions on these matters, so if you’ve already written posts about this and don’t want to leave it all out in a comment – link the post so I can check it out!
So Steemit.. hello!! I maybe look forward to connecting.
Oh yeah, and a little bit about my ‘maybe’ intentions here: I like to curate. In addition to my laymen curiosity in science, technology, medicine, geography, and anthropology – I’m also fascinated by more controversial topics. Conspiracy theories, maybe? I prefer to think of them as topics with very little scientific understanding or commonplace social acceptance. Consciousness, aliens, superhuman feats and beyond. Also, art. (all pictures are mine unless otherwise specified)
1,2 https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2015-12-12/fourth-industrial-revolution (this is an article written by Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum)
The book:
The Fourth Industrial Revolution, by Klaus Schwab. https://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Industrial-Revolution-Klaus-Schwab/dp/1944835008
Great job of summarizing the change we are all witnessing occur all around us. Back in 2013 I published a book titled "Pardon the Disruption. The Future You Never saw Coming." It made numerous predictions concerning the exponential advancement of technology. I was laughed at and criticized for a lot of it. No ones laughing now because most of my predictions are now actually coming true. My book about the future is rapidly becoming a history book. Welcome to STEEM, Sara!
That's so interesting! Ill have to check this book out. So what are your thoughts on Steemit in general? pros, cons?
I love it! you are the first person that has made me want to follow them. Wow great read keep up the good work-Resteemed
Thank you so much! Do you think Steemit addresses the challenges of other social media?
Welcome @saradear. Very interesting post. I love that you are sceptical and try to see the truth. Blockchain is probably the most important invention in the last 20 or so years. The promise of the blockchain for me is to give back ownership to the people, to us. Future will tell, but at the moment I will help to make Steemit succeed by trying to help other people here. It seems to be a great place to learn and share my own little pieces of wisdom.
Thanks for your input!
Hi there welcome to Steemit. An interesting introduction indeed. I understand that you mean completely as we are from the same time era. So looking forward to your contribution here!
Thanks so much! I see you are new to steemit as well, just followed you :) .. What excites you about steemit?
You are welcome. Thank you for your follow. I have come to realise as per your introduction that things are really changing in the world today. Blockchain being one of them. I am excited about the prospect of a totally new way of doing things. With Steemit I find that I am motivated to create and curate quality content. It is of course exciting that you can receive compensation for the content that you create or curate. It is also more than that, it is another avenue for normal people like me to create and practice creating whilst receiving feedback and encouragement to continue getting better.
Yes I totally agree. Thank you so much for the reply! That's a really great point, that above and beyond the obvious reward incentive, its a very honest evaluation of the content you put out there. Steemit seems like a great place to receive feedback and practice producing. Good thoughts :)
@saradear do you remember the days when we had to actually remember phone numbers?
p.s. - a question I'm asking other users right now... how does steemit give it's users the power, aside from the obvious voting pool reward situation. I thinks its great that steemit is a publication site using a decentralized blockchain platform, but it seems the power is in the hands of the cryptography rather than the people. A code that has no customer service. Where are the feedback loops? Not being able to edit or curate my blog once posts are uploaded (except for first 7 days) doesn't make me feel autonomous in curating the content I present.. on the contrary it makes me feel more vulnerable! I read your post about the potential of steemit to overtake facebook, and I'm wanting to get input on this from steemit chearleaders like yourself .. thanks!
think next level of facebook. One where you are offered the potential of real value from posting. then steem dollars etc can be traded for something else. unlike now, where you are just offered a pre-designed platform and content creators are not even real share holders the vast vast majority of the time. How many of us Facebook users own facebook shares? Steemit gives us ownership too. blockchain "money" , block chain contracts, block chain product history receipts etc are the future that we like it or not.
How do you not feel autonomous in curating content? I am interested and please tell me more.
Okay, starting to make sense (thanks for answering, you're the first person to answer me so far).. so you're saying the power is with the people in that we're all shareholders through blockchain currency and the public contracts/receipts.. but my lack of feeling autonomous comes in when thinking about what ways I can impact the system manifolds myself, directly, to propose edits to the system and have my voice heard. Thats the part thats not clear to me yet. As for a pre-designed platform, thats a a part of my question.. how do we have access to help mold this platform? As far as I can tell, there is in fact a pre-designed system in place of uploading posts, voting, etc.. but what system is in place for changes to the system? Am I making any sense? :/
you are making total sense and it is a very good question. let me think about it and I will get back to you.
Cool, thank you! I appreciate it :)
@intrepidsurfer - Nevermind! Got my question answered. I reached out to the volunteers on the help channel in steemchat, and the steemwitness, darko, helped break it down for me in a helpful way. Steemit is a private company that owns and develops the Steem blockchain. They own it, but they don't run it as it's run by the users. Being open source, any developer can participate and fix bugs and make improvements which are merged by Steemit's team. As for "user feedback," that channel seems mainly to be the #help channel on SteemChat plus an email address. And the witnesses are developers who host the blockchain nodes, and the users can vote for these people. Whew.. got it ... although it's privately owned, it is, indeed, mostly influenced by the users. Thanks for engaging :)
Haha yes! What wizards we all used to be. Now I feel so useless in that department.
Hello there, welcome to Steemit! Have fun!
Thanks so much :)