predicting how big this site may actually get... only time will tell.
however, I'd bet that it won't get anywhere near as huge as Facebook or YouTube - if only for the simple fact the rewards here go to mainly WRITERS of great content.
nobody needs to be a writer on Facebook - just click a share button on something that interests them.
while it's possible to copy & past content to share on here, I've noticed that such posts don't receive anywhere close to the rewards of originally-generated content. as such, while there's an incentivization system in place for curation, the practical application isn't as likely to become a factor for a billion people flocking to Steemit in hopes of gaining rewards for clicking a share button.
and while there is the potential to earn money voting, it does require investment. no one who doesn't invest isn't going to earn anything more than pennies by simply voting. and the reality is, of the billion people on Facebook, the large majority of them either don't have the capacity or aren't interested in investing the time to learn the complexities of such a cryptocurrency-meets-colloborative platform - meets incentivized voting system and put down the capital required to make anything significant of it. for most people, the lure of instant gratification far outweighs the long-term opportunities of navigating such an entirely new domain - and many may likely to stick to sites like Facebook that don't require time invested in original content production.
as such, the 'growth explosion' in users here will not continue indefinitely at the same rate, and there'll be some cap on how big the user base actually gets. which, also raises the question - once that cap is hit and there's no one left to keep investing, what will happen to the reward values, without a new influx of capital coming into the system...?
"the lure of instant gratification far outweighs the long-term opportunities of navigating such an entirely new domain"
The "gratification" here is going to seem much, much more "instant" when payouts are daily.
i could easily lose my fucking mind on this site. I'm already seeing a return of my nightly sleep-deprived hallucinations visiting me......last time this happened was when i was high on paxil.....in california, used to sleep with my door open to let in the ocean breeze.
@tuck-fheman Don't you think @stellabelle needs a reminder winks. This : To My Fellow SteemIt Addicts ;) is for you. ;)
Abandon all hope ye who enter here?
Why don't you take a couple of days off - everyone deserves a break. I'm pretty sure that if July 4th works out as we all hope you will have already made enough to get that new computer and pay off some of your bills.
Never.