I dont think the 'family' or 'friend' analogy is suitable (it may not be an analogy by the way) to adjust upvoting who we are close with. Of course I agree in a society family and friends come at first in many things but on social media I must say it is pretty frustrating to see that for me. We already know this from facebook, instagram or similar services. People just sending likes what ever the content is without thinking because they know who posts.
This is just old fashion social media behaviour and for me on steemit like places this behaviour should be avoided. Cause new social media needs and seeks good content more than ever. We also live in a world with fake news and garbage posts. And If we repeat the same behaviour patterns we showed in the past we will end up with the same results. Thats why choosing the good content is way important.
On the other hand I dont mean that we should be very cruel and cold rational to our close ones. But I have a huge doubt it is beneficial to upvote and encourage shitposts (definition of it for me is the posts which requires no effort or knowledge) of our friends or family members for them also cause that way we motivate and encourage them for more shitposts. So that on the long term we give damage to their level of productivity.
I only surround myself with talented, smart and funny people so when I upvote them, it means I upvote good content. But I’m of course only talking for my behalf, most people might not be as fortune to have such awesome friends.
What comes to ”old fashion social media behavior”, I don’t think there is such a thing, there is just human behavior. And we motherfuckers are both very simple, and very complicated.
Obviously I didnt mean on the behalf of you. Behaviours mostly shaped by the environment so how we determine the environment will effect the previous. Thats why I narrowed the subject cause the subject is about upvoting as I remember. Old fashion social media term describes that which is the 'environment'. That environment shaped people's behaviour depending on its conditions and structure. And it was not much different than our social circle we live in real life. In that atmosphere we favour our friends and family without judging the situations or consequences. We didnt and dont give much attention to the content.
But now we have a slightly different environment and we should not behave as we did before if we want to benefit from the new one. Simple as it is.