Hi All,
I've been using Steemit for about a week now. I've got a couple of posts under my belt and have read a fair bit of content.
Here are my first impressions on the differences between facebook and steemit.
To begin with, the steemit community is still relatively small albeit growing. I believe that most steemit users are people that have discovered it by their research and interest in cryptocurrencies. This means that most steemit users are the innovators and early adopters. If/when steemit becomes a mainstream social media site the typical post will probably change. We will revisit what that change could look like a little later.
For now, let's look at what makes steemit different from facebook.
As I scroll through facebook, I'm presented with mostly posts about everyday experiences. For example, I see posts about "nice to have so-and-so over for dinner tonight", "my son passed his fourth year medical exams", and "watching 'are you afraid of the dark'... love that show". The content of these posts are important to the poster, maybe important to close family and friends, and probably not important to anyone else. The average user fills facebook with this sort of content.
Now onto steemit. The content currently available on steemit is... well, just that. Content. By this, I mean that is that posts tend to be longer, developed with an intended audience in mind, about a specific subject, and far less mundane in nature.
Generally speaking, on facebook, people are rewarded for posting with social credit (i.e. they are rewarded by getting likes on their posts). I understand that there are professional content creators on facebook that also make money from the platform but the vast majority of users are of the variety that get their payout in likes rather than a more traditional currency. Steemit provides its users with a payout based on the value assigned to it by the community. If I were to post something to steemit about what I had for dinner tonight, it would likely not get much recognition from the community. Alternatively, if I develop a guide, share an opinion on a hot topic, or find some other way to provide value to the community, I will see recognition (and receive a reward) from the community.
Personally, I like this shift in social media experience. Facebook has its place. It helps connect people that you would have otherwise lost track of. An example is when facebook was first on the scene, my boss at the time said that he had found someone he went to high school 30 years previously. Making that connection was valuable to him and thus there is value in the service that facebook provided. But over the years, facebook has changed how it offers up content. Any regular facebook user will know how many paid posts are showing up in their feed nowadays. Additionally, facebook promotes certain posts over others (it is difficult to find the chronological sort feature, for example). With the proliferation of personal posts about everyday occurrences, I find myself browsing facebook and being unsatisfied with the experience. I rarely post on facebook because I don't think that people need to know the ordinary things that go on in my life.
Steemit is a different beast altogether. When I want to post something on steemit, I'm considering what I want to say, who my audience will be (partially by selecting the tags), and providing a much longer and more in depth post than I would ever consider on facebook. With luck, I am rewarded for my efforts in posting on steemit. Personally, I also like having this platform to develop my writing style. I have opportunity to write in my job but the freedom to write about whatever subject I want on steemit will help me to grow into a more entertaining and persuasive writer (again, something I would never consider doing on facebook).
So, where does that leave us? Currently, facebook (and twitter) are king of the masses. Us few have found steemit and are using it to develop exciting and (hopefully) useful content.
Where will steemit go from here? Could steemit replace facebook? Now, there is an interesting question... For steemit to replace facebook, a significant portion of the mainstream would have to start using steemit. And what will happen if the masses adopted steemit as their main platform? What sort of content would the masses adopt and upvote? Will it change from the typical content being upvoted now?
My guess is that when a sufficient percentage of the masses start using steemit, the content that will be upvoted will be similar to this:
Don't worry, with the tagging system, you should still be able to find the content you are interested in.
Happy steeming people!
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