I was born in 1988. By definition I am a millenial.
According to every adult around me while I was growing up, I can be whatever I want if I try hard enough, besides I am the most handsome, inteligent and capable kid they´ve ever seen and anyone who says otherwise, it is just because they are jealous and don´t want me to succeed. I am destined to be the best in whatever I decide to be and I just need to try hard enough and dedicate myself to become who I want to be, no matter my abilities, personality or capabilities.
And so is every other kid, according to the adults around him/her while growing up.
You see, we were told we deserve everything just for being ourselves and thus, the culture of entitlement was born. Let me tell you a quick story. Don´t worry, I believe it is entertaining:
I was born in a middle class mexican family - this part is important, I´m not bragging about my social status back then, the middle of the pyramid is where the progressive ideas are born-, and every summer my parents could afford to send me to a summer camp. A summer camp divided in teams according to your age and sex. Every day, each team was awarded participation points depending on their behaviour or achievements as a team and, at the end of the summer camp, the team with the most point was the winner team. That year, 2000, my team won. We were given T-shirts labeled "1st place - Best Team". But the other teams, were also given T-shirts, the same model, the same colors, the same everything, only that those were labeled "Best Team".
I was 12 years old when I realized the social implications and the agenda behind this award system, and even though I was too young to understand the probable consequences of rewarding everyone, I knew something was wrong with it. I had never seen it before and I didn´t quite understood the reasons.
I mean, at 12 you only end up wondering "whats the point of making an effort and trying your best to excel, if in the end every team is getting the same prize? Where is the award for being the very best team among 11 other teams?
Of course, the other 11 teams were happy for also getting a shirt and I am sure there were more positive memories from those 11 team members, than negative memories from my team members.
We felt tricked. Oh yeah, I wasn´t the only one feeling like all of our effort and sweat and discipline throughout all the camp was unrecognised and not valued at all.
I was raised in a meritocracy school system where the good students got picked to be part of the ceremonies, where there was actually a competition among 15-20 students (out of 40) per class room to see who could get the best grades; we were competing to see who was the best at football, basketball, tae-kwon-do etc.
The competition was real and even though our parents already had the "you deserve everything, my sweet child" chip on them, the school didn´t. I am grateful for this because it taught me how to earn what I wanted, not just ask for it.
I was part of that generation growing up, but my dad always made me earn everything. I had to work for my dad for 6 months - doing petty stuff obviously - at 10 years old to buy by myself the PS1 (Of course he bought it for me, but I "earned it" through my work); my first cellphone was paid by me by waiting tables at 16 years old and so on. My dad always made me work whenever I wanted something out of what his obligations as father meant and I can safely say that most of my grade bros were the same at some level.
But I was a witness of how this changed with younger generations. The school became soft, bending to the students (or the parents) crazy requests and I could see how this "participation awards" started to become a trend wherever I went.
I was 21 years old when I realized that terms like meritocracy were frowned upon; I could see how universities started to admit everyone depending on other factors rather than knowledge and grades; I was there to see how my ex teachers had to pass students to fill a % quota; I was there when casual bullying became harrasment because kids can´t handle it.
But also, it has already reached Steemit
I am not going to deny it. I fell entitled sometimes. I feel like I deserve stuff just because I am me and because I think I am the coolest shit around. But I try to avoid it, I try to stop myself when I think my posts should get more. I go the extra mile when I find myself valuing my work more than the work of others, or undermining their effort while comparing it to mine.
But that also doesn´t mean shit. Steemit is not made up by well wishers and participation awards. Everything on this social experiment called Steemit is earned, nothing is given and no one will give you a vote just because of your pretty face (well, almost). We don´t deserve votes just because it took us 4 hours to make a post.
We don´t deserve a $500 payout post just because WE believe it is worth that. This is a meritocracy and rewards and merit goes where rewards and merit are deserved. No one is going to give you for free anything, you have to earn it.
I am one the few Steemians with a big chunk of SP who are still focused in spreading the votes and to give rewards where I think where they are deserved. But this participation award mindset doesn´t work with me. Just because you tell me you spent 17 hours doing a post or because you tell me you are giving your rewards to charity, doesn´t mean I will vote on your post. I am sorry if this statement is not what you expected of me.
You can look at my voting behaviour, you can ask around - I bet you know someone who knows me - I vote on a lot of people´s posts and I try to spread the VP as far as I can, but I will bet you my ass, I only vote on posts that deserve the vote.
As you may know, I organized a Contest where more than a couple of hundred Steemians joined...
First of all, thank you, you rock and without you these contests wouldn´t be what they are and for that I tell you "thank you". Second, yeah me and @eveuncovered opened all of them and we commented on some, she voted on some posts, I voted on a large percentage of them and we both selected the winners. Third, I never said I would vote on every entry because last time, my Voting Power wasn´t enough to reward everyone but I still tried to do it, to reward most posts that I considered - from my own point of view - that deserved it.
But still, I got comments like this one (paraphrasing because the comment was long as hell):
It is a pity that original content is not being supported because time or VP is "not enough". I will continue to write even if I don´t get votes just because I can support my posts with my SBD (Bidbots). Everyone who joined the contest and didn´t get a comment or a vote, is being disrespected and it only speaks about a lack of seriousness. This only clarifies that Steemit is a great idea, but in the end those with SP are not spreading it. If you couldn´t guarantee the vote, you must have said it. The contest lacked a good promotion, a lot of great entries were left with a 0 payout. You represent one of the best communities there is, but definitely there are more $ interests in making the contest posts, than to reward the entries. Thanks for your intentions, but I can´t eat with that. Mi passion is to write, and you have disrespected me as a participant. Regards
Can you see the entitlement here? Can you see the Participation award mindset?
I never said I would vote on every entry - as you may understand, reading them takes a long time, to comment on every post would take ages and to vote on every one would be impossible - and yet you can search the tag, a very big percentage of the entries were voted by me or Eve, nominated for OCD and voted by curie. Those who had already a significant pending payout were skipped by me, but only to spread the VP among other entries.
And yet, this user feels disrespected because I didn´t vote nor comment, and feels like I should have announced I wouldn´t be able to vote on every entry.
Since when, we join contests for the vote of the person who organizes it, rather than to try and win the prize?
Is this user joining my contests because he finds them amusing, because he wants to win or just because he just wants a participation award?
So, according to this guy, I am obligued by definition to vote on every entry of the contest and, also according to him, he is entitled to my vote just for joining!
I actually read the post, I thought it deserved a vote but my VP was low - and as you know, I am very committed with the communities and projects I am part of so I have to keep in mind my VP % - and I decided to not vote on it and just copy the link and paste it in the discord channel I have with myself where I type everything I need to remember, I put it among the possible winners. He didn´t win and I got that comment which wasn´t the only one aimed to the same subject, and inspired this post.
I have felt entitled some times, but I try to avoid it. I strongly believe that we, as steemians, should avoid it at all costs. We are not entitled to anything, whales don´t have to vote on our posts, other fellow steemians are not under the obligation of commenting on our posts, no one is obligued to engage with us.
A very objective and valid rant (a good kind of rant). :) I feel bad for those with an entitlement mindset, I do not know how they will handle failure or losing which is part of life. The problem with having this mindset is they will overlook the growth and learning as part of the process and instead just focus on the reward.
It is also absurd for someone to think that every participant in a contest should get something. That is why it is also called a 'competition' and one must be 'competitive'(in a healthy way) to get the prize. And a prize gets more valuable and sought after if it is limited. And in any contests, even consolation prizes are very limited. Your contests have been more than generous to upvote and curate as much entries.
Exactly, that´s why it is called competition! I started to give out 20 prizes because the number of people joining was too much for just one prize. Rewards are nice, we all want them but as you say, joining a contest is more about growing and learning, reading the other entries and making other connections.
Steemit incentivizes reward-pool gaming, not reward based on merit.
I realized this a while back, and changed my time spent on the platform proportionally.
It could change, but honestly any Proof-of-Stake system is biased towards those that hold the most - much like developed nations where there's two sets of laws - one for the average schmuck and one for the rich.
The rich also have the resources to exercise control in various ways due to sheer resources available to them. I don't know why Steemit became enamored with this kind of setup, but I don't think it will end well.
Just hanging out here to see if it might change, but I'm not holding my breath.
You hit the nail on the head this time. I am a millennial but I come from a country that was a couple of years behind. At school good grades were praised and bad grades frowned upon. There were some instances that I thought it was not fair that a kid who is just not good at math could not pass. I see the grading system as something that needs improvement but that part is something else altogether.
I was told by my mom that I could be whatever I wanted to be, that I could have everything in the world. That, yes, I, too, was the shit. :D Thanks to that(at least partly) when I finished school I felt like I was facing a wall, the world was not what it was said to be.
Thankfully, I also grew up seeing that unique ideas and innovation was necessary to be on the top. My mind put two and two together there. Now, I am good. I got through my phaze of lost puppy thoughts and I am persuing what I love. In my eyes I am on the way to become ''the shit'' (makes me laugh every time) :D.
Still. On the last years in school, participation awards became a thing. Even cups were given out for participation. Kids got more ignorant and lazy. Some even in my class. Some after me.
We expect too much. We go someplace, open our hands and demand stuff in turn offering nothing. The problem is in the fact that a lot of professions are filled with people who have no clue what they are doing. Now everybody can be an architect, singer, engineer. Anything. Just because they want to and not because of their specific talents.
I have met psychologists who have no idea what they are doing. No sense of recognising a problem. They just work by the book. If the book doesn't contain your problem then you are an alien. I studied Architecture with people who had no interest in the subject or who did not have the capacity for it. In my country doctors misdiagnose people a couple of times at one given moment just because they went for the highest paying job. They slept halfway through their classes but were still let through.
This is a great post and I agree with every word of it. We need to stop being entitled and pursue what we are good at or be ready to work hard to get better at something we have ambition for. Because without it, the best will be discouraged and give less of an effort.
Well apparently, it's not only on contests Eric. Most steemians here feel it's their right to get upvoted. They feel like creating a good post means they'll automatically get upvoted and when that doesn't happen, they get mad at everyone.
I've had that feeling too at some point when I joined I must confess, but then I realised no one here owes you their votes. Creating good posts is not a garuantee that you'll get upvoted. They worked to get there and so must you.
I was the same, and to be honest most of my rants are not to criticize but to try and teach other people newer than me steemit usually works. I am no truth carrier but at least I have bit more experience than the average user due to the time I spend here everyday.
I can definitely relate. I was digging into my A game stuff before I had any followers and I do not use bots. But I still post quality stuff (IMHO) and if people like it cool, If not then that is their prerogative. I post and I comment and I up vote what I like. Once I got lucky and was gifted with a big payout on a post. Do i expect that every thing I post will be a motherlode? Nope. Are the little surprises nice? Absolutely. After all I was posting on FB all this time for free.
I don’t know who was that person, who said there is free meals. There is not! Everything is, was, and need to be earned. And even if you work hard you still might not earn it.
There is this finnish proveb that i love ”even if you believe in your self, you can still be piece of shit”
I think that this proverb hits this topic extremely well. People are so get used to get stuff for free and out of participation so they have started to even believe them self that they are worth it. Well news flash! You are not. Here ( and also in real life) there is a community around that decides your worth. In steemit you see it $$$ and in real life it can be that or other tokens like higher rank in work etc. But still. Everything need to be earned.
I loved this rant! You should be such a difficunt more often!
Motherfucker!! I just commented the same damn proverb 😂 Great minds, you bitch❤️
Ha! That word is getting catchy huh? Difficunt is sometimes the way to go. Someone told me I was being too soft and she might´ve been right but still, this is the way i rant, with a moral lesson and exameples and logic behind, not just swear words and telling people they are wrong :P
Steemit is just a reflection or the real world, most of what happens here happens out there in a different level.
Hmmmm.......
Detailed and well thought out post. I realized the entitlement mindset was going to kill my potentials the day I wrote a post after a long night and expected to get upvotes. I couldn't fathom why about 56 people saw the post and only 5 votes which didn't amount to $1 was all I saw. Well, it was just when I joined steemit and @tojukaka who introduced me told me to get that mindset right which today has helped.
Like you said @anomadsoul,no body owes anyone here, no whale owes anyone votes and this feeling of entitlement is just our wired nature from growing up and that is why humans see everything as a competition. Don't be shocked that even if you voted that post and the person's friend also participated and there is a little variation in the curation given to both of them, he could still complain about have the lower share of your curation.
Like you said, everything is earned in life, either by favor or by labour. Curators get to decide who deserves their votes either by sentiment or worthiness. In all, our system has done so much damage to our minds, making us feel rewards and competition are the only way forward.
Thanks for this insightful post @anomadsoul. You are always a blessing.
We can't truly please everyone how they cope up with things. Most likely persons who are open-minded enough to share something without any exchange cost is the one who succeed to become good personality. I have been greedy of aiming money or rewards but then again, I realized that it would be beat to share something enthusiast may it be in public as long as you know it is very helpful to everyone. Thank you sir @anomadsoul for your kindness. Let us just be open for everyone, ignore those who a digger of wealth yet they can realized how worst it was to be.
First it's 7.00 In the morning and u woke up to this thought provoking post my friend, you've related who you are without letting the status, define who your are, I must say your father taught you well, and even when he could afford to give you everything he still made you work for it,
What can I say, these generations gives their children everything on the platter when they could teach them that we need to work to earn.
You're doing well with your challenges nobody has got the right to question how you vote, when they don't know the challenges involved.
I'm really blessed to have read this
Hah! In here is 1 am!
You are right, and I am going to be the same, I am going to make my kids work for everything and earn it, so when they go out to the real world, they don´t expect anything from anyone.
Thank you for your comment man, by they way I saw your engagement in my latest post, thanks for that, you got a new follower after reading that ^^
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay thanks for the follow really I never really felt I mattered till I saw that post of yours yesterday, made realise I've won so much being here really.
And yes kids needn't be spoilt, this life isn't a ginger bread, and what we work for defines how far we've come
I'm resteeming this amazing piece
Very well said, I was raised by my mom just like that where I have to work hard or exert effort when i want something that I don't really need, I remember as early as 8 years old I stay in my mom's office every weekend or whenever I don't have a class to answer phone calls or watch her run the business. That's also the same thing I teach my children because I want them to be a person who never begged for anything and I also teach them that not all the time that you work hard that you should always be rewarded but if you continue working hard sooner or later all the efforts will result into something positive just be patient.
Ha! I was the same! I used to go to my mom´s office 2 or 3 times a week after school because there was no one to take care of me, so I would just help out other people in the office to do small tasks or at some point they would even just invent tasks for me to stay occupied :P
I think you are doing a great job with your children, teaching them about how real life is going to be when they grow up :)
Awe thank u so much! I just dont want them to be a burden to others and it has to start as young as they are now.
Well put nomad. Having been on this platform for a minute. I have seen the price high and I have seen the price low. I have earned whale votes and I have gotten peanuts on hard written posts. But I still put in the work. I am happy with peanuts right now because I believe those small payouts will be 10x or more a year from now. Its all cumulative. Put in the work and the rewards will come.
The harsh reality of life is nobody owes you shit. Always work hard with that in mind and take the responsibility to make your own way and create your own opportunities.
Lol that pic (not actually me). That is true and yet my generation (and the one after mine) has this weird sense of deserving everything without earning it, and hey, I have news for everyone, even when you deserve it, circumstances might not fit you and you won´t get a reward even if you did everything correctly!
I remember a phrase I heard somewhere, "sometimes you can play without making a single mistakes, and still lose the game". That´s life man.
Hi Nomad. Nicely written. It can be challenging to see post not earning a lot while you put a lot of effort in writing them. It happens to me as well, but even when they dont reward me much I still see my ammount of followers grow. So that has to pay off at some point in the future right? I like that you try every day to use your vp to the max. I try it as well and it can be difficult sometimes due to a lack of time. My votes aren’t worth that much, but in my opinion, people with high votes should use them every day to help and make the best of this platform.
I get it, I too got cents for a post that took me a while to get the pictures while hiking, then writing the post, editign the pics and then not getting a lot of rewards or at least not what I expected, but that is life you know? Sometimes we won´t get what we think we deserve, but instead of being negative about it, we should take it the best way possible!
True. I’m about your age and looking back I see so many issues with the way things were growing up.
I listened to an interesting pod cast recently called “emotional waste” featuring cy wakeman about “no ego” she has a book and podcast with that same title. Good listen.
Thanks for the recommendation, I´ll make sure to read about it and if I´m interested about the summary, for sure I´ll give it a try :D
Awesome! Hope you get something new out of it or at least reinforce some previous knowledge
I agree with a lot of what was said here. In the example you provided there was definitely a sense that they were owed something.
However, some of the things you said seemed to be totally divorced from the reality here on Steemit. I'm a little tired of the 'let's just all be positive' bent, just as the 'it all sucks no matter what!' attitude isn't very useful, either. We have to see this platform for what it is, it's strengths and its weaknesses, so that we can as a community guide its development.
This is true, but deceptive. You might not get any significant votes just because of your looks or how you share them... but it's definitely a huge help. I don't really begrudge this, it's a reality on any platform and in life.
My issue is that dismissing such advantages makes the use of terms like 'meritocracy' seem reasonable. It is not. If advancement was based on merit, then everyone would start from the same starting place. Same advantages, same tools. From there, those who were better would advance faster. Of course, this is impossible and not how the real world works. Nor will it ever work this way. That's fine. People are responsible for managing this unfairness and making their way, anyway.
However, it's shitty when someone tries to imply that the reason is because you're unworthy. In the case of the contest example you provided, indeed those other kids were unworthy according to the rules of the contest. You didn't state as much, but I assume that when you started the race you all started from the same position at the same time and were required to reach the same finish lane. Life's not like that.
Some people have significant advantages.
That's okay. But it's important to note that not all (and likely not most) people who don't have those advantages are such lazy, unworthy, bums. I don't really think that's what you think, but I think a little of that is communicated in this post and I've seen it elsewhere. It's tempting to just ignore it, but it's important for more posters to have the guts to have opinions that are in opposition to or modifications of those of the powerful here on Steemit.
TL;DR: Yes there are those with entitlement. Yes some are here on this platform. No, being a have-not and finding issue with the culture or platform does not necessarily equal being entitled.
Such an interesting post, keep it up.God bless you.
I fully agree on the entitlement part. But here's what got me thinking: nobody is going to vote for my pretty face. Or are they? What about my ripped upper body? Though I should have posted pics a couple of weeks ago when I came back from the mountain. My lost grease pillows are starting to come back.
you should be so lucky....some of us have neither of those things!!! :0)
Although I am about to go vegan, so im hoping i might shed a couple of pounds!
I know, I know, I'm so vain! It must be a psychological thing. I used to be "the fat kid" at school, (although nothing close to what "fat" has come to mean these days...) and now I keep comparing myself to this weird ideal. In my teens most of my peers used to look better than me, in my 20s less so, and these days I can think of hardly anyone I know... maybe I'll start modeling when I'm in my 50's!
Going vegan you will definitely lose considerable weight, just be careful not to diminish your micro-nutrients, especially Vitamin B12. I recommend you to look into Spirulina! I cultivate that stuff (you can too, it's super simple, though nobody does it), so you can hit me up on any questions regarding it.
Excellence is a thing of the heart is not based on what others have told but it is based on what you told yourself
I do have to admit that lately I have been feeling a bit down for the reason that I have been writing a bit more and have not received much comments. Although, I realize one of the problems may because not many people are on Steemit at this time because of its worth atm and also because maybe my stuff isn't that great, but hey, it happens. I would like to get some criticism from people on my posts so that I could grow with it all but that doesn't happen much either. Good criticism but waiting for the bad so that I know. It's all appreciated.
Never would I demand for someone to comment or upvote me. These are just my wishings.
I agree with you on having to remove the, everyone gets a trophy because you tried, thing. How are people expected to try harder and gain more skills? So please, if you come upon one of my posts, do not hesitate to say what is wrong with it if you have the time. ;)
Anyways, I think this is a great post and a good eye opener for some people to see things right. We all have to try hard and make the most of it. Otherwise I would always have that one red tomato amongst all the green ones.
100% agree!
Bravo! Well said. You've fashioned a rant of gold with words of truth straight from your heart. 🙏
That's why it is called competition. Winner takes all. We gotta keep on trying until we make it. When we win, we will never whine about why others didn't get the attention they needed. However, when things turned bad for us, we will start complaining.
Right to highlight the entitlement mindset there. Outside the real world is as 'cruel' as on Steemit too. Resources are always limited and we can't just do charity and help everyone.
Exactly, i´ve seen some people complain with me telling me "but that person has SP, he should be voting on my posts" and my response is always the same, "he shouldn´t do anything, you can try and get his attention or engage with him and then he might vote on you". Some people believe that just by posting a photo of their breakfast they are entitled to a $20 post :/
I like that, that definition of competition. Thanks for commenting pal.
haha, $20... quite impossible unless you build your audience or the system that support that reward seriously.
No prob pal :)
Oh, Yes! That's what some people think. "Some people believe that just by posting a photo of their breakfast they are entitled to a $20 post ". They see how someone has already received their money this way and take such an example of easy earnings. I think this way stretches from other social networks like a loop. When people post selfies on each of their actions and get a bunch of likes. They think that this model works here too and are offended - when it doesn't happen. Many people need to understand that our platform is something completely different. It takes time to understand. Someone just go away, but will those who by their persistence and desire will go further.
Hi postingan kamu sangat bagus ya... Saya sangat menyukainya.
Oh ya jika kamu berkenan silahkan kunjungi blog saya @rizazulmi terimakasih teman...
This post certainly went into a realm I did not expect. I have trouble identifying with people I would term Millenials, because of the overflow of political correctness and modern values that many of them seem to embrace. After reading your words, I can see how foolish I am to associate this with the majority. I am a Gen-X'er myself, motivated to not repeat the debt burdened mistakes of my parents generation, but it has been a rough road finding career opportunities that will value me for my character and talents, instead of my schooling and pedigree. I believe in hard work, honesty, and never selling out my self worth to beg for scraps.
Anyway, looks like you got me on a rant too. You are doing a great job. When you know what kind of caliber of moral fiber you have, do not justify your actions to others who pretend they have more integrity than you. They thrive on drama and attention. You thrive on victory and an iron will.
No pain, no gain, nothing is free even in Freetown, you want a vote, work towards it...
We all feel like that sometimes, like we deserve the things even we have not put in the required or enough efforts.
Though I still feel like that sometimes but not as much as before. Nobody or life will not give me shit just because it is me. I think most people had most things handed to them considerably easier. I stop feeling like when life taught Me some lessons. Now when I really want anything, I know I have to roll up my sleeves and work for it.
This was quite expressive...
I agree with everything you have said. People shouldn't expect to be given, seems take take take is the nature of some. I prefer to give, probably why i never have anything. :)
Speaking as an old, and a person with history interests, I feel like I have to point out that this attitude was around long before Millennials were. Certain people in the generations above you really like to blame you for doing the same things we did, and they did. Don't buy into it.
I got Curie'd out of your contest, so I'm pretty happy. But I would be even if I hadn't. (Honestly, the four interactive comments I got mean more to me than the $30.) I'm on post five of a nineteen-post series about mythologizing in the Marvel universe that so far has earned a total of $0.08, and I'm fine with that, too. I'm writing it because I want to write it, and because I figure I'll get a book out of it in the end.
After all, I could be writing them on Twitter or Facebook and earning nothing for dealing with the nastiness of those platforms. Steemit may have a little bit of entitlement but it's nothing next to Twitter.
@anomadsoul well said
I watched a steem video on YouTube and a guy said if you published a high quality content the first time and it doesn't get an upvote, repeat it ten times and more(publish more original works) and one of your content will hit the bull in the eyes.
But on reading this post you reset my mindset and have added more understanding of how this blockchain works in regards to what I watched on youtube.
Thank you
Now a days people can’t even be bothered to put real effort into things. They just want go to the bidbots and tip their money into it. Pat themselves on the back and call themselves successful. Heck they will write guides about how they became successful doing so and expect to become rich lol.
I always laugh a bit when people put more effort into being "offended" then they did in what ever it was that could been avoided by putting in half the effort into that instead.
I was bullied as a kid and it was good for me. Now a days you have all this "micro aggression" nonsense. Anytime someone wants to hide behind that I cant help but think they have a micro something all right and try not to smile.
Participation awards nothing but created dependence to blind fools into thinking they are something special. I’m as common as a speck of sand. I just hope not to be blown away in a wind storm or to be stuck between someone toes. The ladder sounds quite unpleasant. I can only hope to put in enough effort into life to not suffer such a fate.
It's not like putting effort into things pays off on Steemit. It has nothing to do with your efforts. What matters is who you know and how much SP they have.
But real life works the same way, it's nothing new.
Fortunately you were born under the support of your father telling you that things can be achieved with hard work (my father also teach me that).
In my country Venezuela unfortunately has always been said in sports about everything that "the important in participate in the competition" and I believed this phrase is largely to blame for the problem that my country has as a society.
Do not tell me that I would like to be crazy freneticos obsessed with victory, but to assess each athlete under that conformist premise tends to socially harm the person in my opinion, I understand that it is in Germany at the time of Hittler in the squares sounded music with letters referring to the superior of the German (maybe they exaggerated a bit, but maybe that today is surrendered in their actions and are a world power).
Finally I think that the person who has participated in the contest has not participated much in Steemit and does not know what it is, especially in the adaptation and not ignore the term meritocracy.
(Sorry, my English is also published in Spanish, but it seems to be a lack of respect on my part in a different language than the post)
The more people interact on this platform the less they can vote in reality. If you only follow a handful of users it is much easier to upvote them all but if you are a social butterfly, you're fucked.
Everyone wants an upvote and if you interact with too many there just isn't enough upvote to go around. Nobody is entitled to shit, and those who post more than others should realize there isn't enough to go around.
There is a simple fix to everything, gather more followers. The more people your post speak to the more the chance increases you will get upvoted. Write from the heart and not the ass about what is wrong and more people will want to read your blog. We all know what is wrong, we don't need to read about all of the problems that the platform is facing.
So much time and energy is being wasted complaining in place of producing. We are all starting to get caught in the web of discontent as it is being thrown at us from every angle. If we would all just start producing like the problems didn't exist we wouldn't see so many problems.
Don't worry about unhappy people, they get you nothing but down. Plant some seeds of growth and watch everyone grow. Plant seeds of sorrow and watch everyone fail.
Keep up the Nomad mindset and stay free.
I get exactly what you are saying. When i was growing up just a few years before you (I graduated high school in 2000) we had beginners football league. In 5th grade we were the worst team, did not win 1 game. We still got a big trophy and i was so confused by it and just angry about it in general as i felt there was NOTHING to celebrate about my or my teams performance so i threw it out the window on the way home. Me and my dad trained all off season and the next year i was an absolute savage. My team won every game that year and THAT trophy meant something. I slept with that thing on my bed for probably 2 weeks i was so damn proud.
It is your steem power that you have worked for. everyone here can wish and hope on what you will do but at the end of the day, you have the master key and not them. So you go do what you do and to hell with everyone that wants to tear you down for what you accomplished.
I think fundamentally, you simply cannot get something for nothing. I don't agree with the entitlement mindset. I understand your position as I was also born in 1991 in Central America.
The attitude is saddening. I'm not sure if most Steemians realize how difficult it is to make even $10 of a self-hosted blog, starting it all from scratch. Not even taking in account that they need to pay for their URL and also hosting.
Yet, here on Steem they have active curation teams, browsing most popular tags and rewarding great content (let's be honest ok content) with what can be converted to effective financial rewards.
Many people would take 12-18 months to make a monthly $10 average with their site, which pretty much only covers their hosting bill.
If, of course, they haven't thrown in the towel long before after realizing how difficult it is to get traffic, followers, and thus also clicks on ads.
@anomadsoul read a lot of people's articles. Thank you for reading my friend @tegoshei's article.
I read the article of @tegoshei and thought it was a wonderful content. I thought that many Japanese wanted to know that Japanese animation is useful for overseas people.
@anomadsoul, @tegoshei and I had no connection without steemit. It was an event that felt the possibility of steemit.
Thank you @anomadsoul for hosting the contest.
You know how I feel about many of the points you have delivered. Thanks :)
I think the most important in steemit is to enjoy it and be yourself.
Guaooooooooo!!!! he leído detenidamente tu post, pudiera decirse que consta de 2 secciones importantes de tu vida: la 1era sección referida al pasado que viviste y en el que aprendiste sobre las "ironías de la no exigencia pero igual merecimiento que vislumbraste a los 21" y la 2da de tu presente (aquí y ahora) con los mensajes de personas que hacen hervir tu sangre con comentarios que no se ajustan a tu forma de ser.
Si me permites te doy mi opinión al respecto de esto, aunque ya tu diste con la respuesta y la señalaste en el siguiente párrafo:
"¿Este usuario se está uniendo a mis concursos porque los encuentra divertidos, porque quiere ganar o simplemente porque solo quiere un premio de participación?"
R= Evidentemente ya sabes que el usuario se unió a tu concurso para "ganar lo que él cree que se merece"
La preguntas realmente importante que debes hacerte son: ¿Vale la pena cederle mi humor a personas que hablan desde sus egos? ¿Porque siguen llegando ésta clase de personas a mi vida? ¿Habrá algo de ego en mi y por eso estoy atrayendo esta clase de personas?
Realmente felicito tu iniciativa de expresar en cada post lo que sientes, lo que te parece y no te parece de ciertas situaciones (porque aunque no lo veas estás haciendo catarsis con ello), como también el hecho de escribir acerca de la persona es tomarla en consideración, pero al fin y al cabo ésta clase de personalidades más que tu atención lo que desea es gratificación monetaria, por ello no hay que cederle más atención, importancia de la que realmente se merece.
No te achicopales Eric, no es tu deber complacer a todos, cada quien debe labrarse su propio camino.
Justo lo que yo le mencionaba a Eric en su anterior post. A veces le damos mas peso a las cosas negativas que a las positivas, y es que el mundo esta tan plagado de ellas que suelen ser sofocantes. Diría que deberíamos dar mas peso a lo positivo pero por otro lado de vez en cuando es necesario dejar las cosas claras con la convicción de a alguno le sirva para recapacitar.
Si, es así como dices.
Las cosas malas o que nos desagradan siempre estarán, lo ideal es no dejarse afectar por ellas, hasta cierto punto son importantes porque nos permiten cuestionarnos, evaluarnos, sensibilizarnos, pero hay que aceptarlas con humildad para no dejar de ver lo que realmente está detrás de ellas (por nuestro trabajo interior realmente), no para cederle más poder a esas cosas negativas.
Hello, I understand and share with you those lines that have been dedicated to reflect on what is happening, with the merit and effort that every human being must make to achieve their goals. I understand you as a professional who did everything he could to be the best in his professional field, as a student and as a person, but even more as a mother who is trying to instill in her children the value of study, discipline and perseverance.
And how can I not understand it when I see my child who is just in elementary school and is disappointed when he does excellent work and is qualified as excellent, and that same excellent is placed on another student who did the activity just to get out of the way? What my son asks me is whether so much effort he put into doing a certain job is necessary if his colleague who made no effort is given the same grade.
I think you might have already seen this, but I'm gonna share it for everyone else too.
A translation of a Finnish proverb, it doesn't work as well in English, but you get the point. Even if you think you have done an amazing job, worked hard and you believe you should reap insane rewards for it, it doesn't mean that everyone else thinks so.
I think what a lot of millennial lack, is self reflections and healthy comparing to others. You also have to understand the environment and the medium you are working in. For example: my photography does well in this little format in Steemit, but if I was trying to get National Geography to buy them, they would laugh at my efforts.
I read it, you said a few days ago in a rant of yours iirc and I couldn´t agree more. I heard this very same phrase - or at least the bottom line of it - a few months ago in a series, it went something like "sometimes you can play at your best level and make no mistakes, and you are still going to lose the game".
Exactly, our parents told us to aim for the stars and well, sometimes aiming that high will only bring disappointment. Not everyone can reach the stars - otherwise they wouldn´t be a goal. Yes, we have to be ambitious but also we have to be realists.
It's a cute saying, but it was totally irrelevant where you used it. The issue was self upvoting of comments, not complaining about getting rewards.
There are many, like you, from the millennial generation that saw early on, or figured it out, thanks to parents or someone else or just through observing that 'participating' was not the same as winning, succeeding, excelling or even putting forth an effort. I think that's great. It's necessary that each generation break through whatever societal norms the progressive powers want to foist upon us.
This is why I have a hard time when it shows up here, where I'm trying to escape all of that and more.
It's why I avoid things like vote bots, or subscription bots or auto votes or circle votes or whatever class of voting combination exists.
It's why I don't like the idea behind steem basic income, though I understand it. It's why I don't put busy in my tags when I use the platform. It's why I'm not sending $0.001 SBD to those with high SP asking for delegation or help in some way.
It's why I don't typically enter contests, though I have been participating in a couple.
All that said, visibility is an issue and probably always will be, but it's remedy can be found by participating in some way on the platform, interacting in the comments and on discord and where ever Steemit users gather.
I commend you for your integrity (even if you don't need me to), and I thank you for this post.
This is very true. It is a huge part of the photography industry as well with photography competitions handing out Gold, Silver and Bronze awards based on your score. This means that a vast majority end up with some kind of award (Bronze usually if it scores above 70/100). So you end up with every photographer that enters these advertising that they are an "award winning photographer".
No steemian has the right to be upvoted, just because they posted something.
Heck, something that simple that is incredible some people still don't get it...
Been sticking to and preaching this concept since I joined steemit last year. The way I look at it, is that if it wasn't for steemit, I'd be WASTING my time elsewhere. So, I'm thankful to be surrounded by like-minded people here and that brings me more fulfillment in my daily life than numbers on my posts :) Steem on and have fun folks!
No puedo estar mas de acuerdo contigo @anomadsoul, yo también me crié en un sistema de valores donde el se obtenían recompensas solo si se trabajaba duro... y se obtenían los resultados.
Lamentablemente, a mi juicio promovido por mucha gente que los mueve el "populismo" y la mentalidad igualitaria, se ha incrustado en la sociedad esa falsa creencia de que "todos somos iguales", en lugar de "todos tenemos los mismos derechos", que aunque suene igual no es lo mismo, yo tengo todo mi derecho a hablar por ejemplo, pero nadie esta en la obligación de escucharme/leerme.
Eso creo que es lo que muchos no entienden, NO SOMOS IGUALES, ni debemos pretender serlo, eso sería "castrarnos" intelectualmente, al contrario debemos hacer buen uso de nuestras individualidades y "conectarnos" con las de otros (las positivas por supuesto), para crecer como personas como individuos...
Quisiera seguir comentando, pero no quiero pecar de pesado, ni de saturarte mas de lo que pudieses estar, saludos @anomadsoul.
This is a really nice rant, I love it, they are good to your mind and soul. People should understand that contest are for having good times and posting stuff that you enjoy writing. Contest like this are the ones where you can actually write and write and write beacuse you are writing about something you love and that's part of your life even if you don't get a reward at the end, the thing here it's participate to see what happens. Focusing on how much a post it's going to give you instead of enjoying what are you doing it's not good, since you're basically ignoring the what are you doing or learning. This remaind of a classmate of my english course where she got upset because she didn't get 100 on her exhibition, saying that all the teacher before always gave her 100. This made me think that she was there just to presume about her grades. Life is full of ups and downs people, maybe you didn't do good here because life has something better for you in a future.
WHAT I GOT FROM @ANOMADSOULS NOT BRAGGING WRITING
I was born in 1988. By definition I am a millennial.
According to every adult around me while I was growing up, I can be whatever I want if I try hard enough, besides I am the most handsome, intelligent and capable kid they´ve ever seen and anyone who says otherwise, it is just because they are jealous and don´t want me to succeed. I am destined to be the best in whatever I decide to be and I just need to try hard enough and dedicate myself to become who I want to be, no matter my abilities, personality or capabilities.
TRYING HARD ENOUGH
To me NOT TRYING HARD CALLS FAILURE IN CAPITAL LETTERS,
It is out of trying that our strength and weaknesses are exposed by the TRY HARD light so that our personal examinations push as to do better basing on the strengths and what we can do with them for example if your good at class activities then you will always work hard to see that the sky is your limit meaning your perfection sharpens where you best can.
Talking about our weakness, these are areas in life where we may under perform poorly to expose us out to the community yet helps to inform us that we can change strategy of how we view and perceive the way we do things or even quit one but continue pressing through a hole of our opportunity in life so that we can point fingers and count off our fingers the results of our hard work as the community appreciates with wonder and continues to receive inspirations of our performances.
MEANINGFUL SELF KNOWLEDGE;
Sometimes speaking about what we can and what we are does not necessarily imply that we are proud because creating an inferiority complex within our hearts only helps us to look down in a sense of thinking that we cannot as opposed to looking up for personal growth and composition to achieve in life through our ability and capability portions.
Anomadsoul did say about himself that “I am the most handsome, intelligent and capable kid” If I could quote in appreciation of ANomadsoul. This welcomes no pride thought from his statement but it is just his perfect knowledge and self content that in him there is handsomeness, intelligence and capability and he used this elements to attain and workout things rightful in his life “IF WE LEARN TO UNDERSDAND AND APPRECIATE OURSELVES THEN WE CAN MOVE A MARKED JOURNEY OF SUCCESS” because what the community focuses much on sometimes is identifying our failure yet we can use that as an extrinsic motivation means to be an achiever in life.
Thanks
Seemians at Heart
Be Blessed
Alioni
This is an awesome rant and I'm sorry I missed it during the curation period.
I seem to hear echoes of "millionaires and billionaires"... I hate that mindset that just because someone has more than you, you are entitled to a piece of it for no other reason than that you have less. It's such a covetous and envious way of thinking, and I feel sorry for people who are trapped in it. Being content with what you have is so freeing!
Have you seen Mike Rowe's video "Don't Follow Your Passion"? It hits on a lot of what you talked about, people being told they can be anything they WANT to be regardless of ability.
I see a lot of great content in here be rewarded with $0.03 or so ...
At the same time, I see a huge amount of crappy posts on the trending page, from the same users, over and over again. bernie sanders is one of these regular scammers, but there are many more. He's just the most consistent scammer.
They earn thousands of dollars each day posting big piles of poo, upvoting themselves and all their comments with a legion of bots.
It seems to me that there's no meritocracy here. Only a bunch of rich people rewarding themselves and their friends. The rest of us are basically screwed. We can create the best content ever... and earn a few pennies, at most.
If the developers don't change the way SteemIt works, I see Wildspark, by Synereo (AMP) taking over... and putting Steem on a corner.
That's why I have invested as much in AMP as I have in Synereo.
I wouldn't have done that if I saw that good content was valued... and shitty content left to rot.
But since I see the exact opposite - a bunch of greedy people rewarding their own trash - I have to edge my STEEM investment... and AMP is the way to go. I think.