Steemit is very similar to real life: It's a struggle for scarce resources. Only the fittest in some respect get rewards.
It is social.
It is dynamic.
It is elusive.
It is not fair.
It is mysterious.
Sometimes, it's a bitch.
But it is unlike the centralized system (the Matrix) in this one important respect: powerless people with zero liquid assets do have the possibility of becoming a dolphin, or even a whale.
There's a lot of bitching going on about diluted rewards posts. Even I have been sucked into this negative mindset on occasion recently. My Secret Writer project aimed at alleviating suffering for mass amounts of people received 9 bucks while a super hot chick who likes to share makeup tips gets over $1000.
These low valued posts have the effect of injecting fear of a downward trend. Part of me thinks the following: if my high quality posts are going way down to $9 now, and Steemit is still in Beta, how much lower will they be once the real onslaught of users get dumped into Steemit?
Soon it might be a bad game to be spending my precious time creating high-quality, interesting content.
I am not immune to fear. To be alive is to be afraid.
To have passions, goals, mad desires to change some fundamental things about society requires that you be afraid. To be unafraid would indicate that you are not concerned with your own survival.
Even I have recently been affected by the pressures to show off some aspect of my body in order to get noticed and rewarded by the male whale gaze. The photo collage I made of me as the Dolphin Queen is about as revealing as you'll ever get because I'm shy about such things. It's not my personality to be an exhibitionist. I'd rather wear a mask and sit in a corner while I watch you. That's just my personality. Everyone is freaky in some way. I would guess that the crypto male community has a stronger relationship to virtual porn than actual women, anyway. No judgment here, just an observation of where human sexuality is headed, and I notice that I too, exist in some fantasy world of my own creation most of the time. It's possible to exist like that. It's not especially satisfying and doesn't lead to growth in any meaningful way though.
It is a tempting prospect: show off myself to produce an elusive and pornographic short-lived visual fantasy for the whales in exchange for money. Let's face it, in this respect, Steemit is exactly like the Matrix. Female power is fairly non-existent and a woman's value becomes synonomous with her fuckability rating. This is not revolutionary. But it is happening, and it's happening to me too, on some deep unconscious level.
The boys, too, are outraged by this reality. I don't blame them. I guess it would suck to be in that group too.
Do you know what's the saddest part of this thing to me? It's not the girls, it's actually the boys' perception of themselves as being worthless in this male whale hierarchy. There have been a few posts that truly depressed me, as the boys reveal that they haven't taken a shower, and that they don't have enormous, beautiful breasts to show to the camera. I never really got the breast thing. To me, they are low-hanging sacks of body fat. ewwww........ I like my breasts ok, but they are not really anything special. They are nothing different from my elbows.
The reason we need a balanced whale population is pretty simple: once female and gay male whales exist, the value of the boys increases.
You may disagree with me, but it seems pretty logical. I'm starting to see another dimension of Steemit that I don't think was ever intended, but that is quite valuable: you can get to know people from the inside first, instead of from an external way first. It's like our authentic souls are immutably imprinted in the Steemit blockchain and you can't help yourself from getting attracted to certain people because of it. It's a new dimension of our digital world. It's a better dimension and it's exciting.
It's powerful and it doesn't exist anywhere else. Because it's focus is not dating, it becomes a lot like the real world, where you might meet someone whom you can't stop thinking about because they have shifted something deep in your soul. Then you get to see them, over and over, but in a nice, neutral way, through the lens of a social world. There's no fooling anyone, because your social status is known, and therefore you cannot trick anyone. Steemit is genius for this reason, but I doubt anyone thought it was have this residual effect on us. We really are @dantheman and @ned's guinea pigs :). But I'm a willing lab experiment. This is the best experiment I've been in in a looooooong time.
For starters, I am a heterosexual female who appreciates men and women. But I naturally feel more charge from men and I tend to fixate on them more than the women.
But I definitely am on the spectrum of being a voyeur, like a lot of the male crypto dudes. Most men are largely unaware of the fact that women like me exist. To them, women are just a one-dimensional fuck tool that can be turned off or on whenever they want.
I'm not outlining any sort of way to rectify the dynamics as I believe the dynamics will shift on their own. The infrastructure of Steemit allows for such growth.
That is why I, a person with $3000 to her name (in the Matrix) was able to walk away with $12,000 of Steemit Dollars in 4 weeks. I am a dolphin now, and my votes matter. Of course, I want them to matter more, as my goal is to become a whale. I have a lot of cool stuff planned.
My advice to young guys who feel undervalued: create something of value then share it. Do you need inspiration? Read @infovore @donkeypong @guillaume @lauralemons @teamsteem to name just a few. They are producing incredible value to this community, and to me personally.
You have that opportunity. You might have to work harder than you intended, but just think of the souls you could touch. Work and suffering builds knowledge and power. That's the real opportunity that has been given to you by the founders of Steemit. Wasting it will not serve you or any of us. I challenge you to become the person you were meant to be. I'll be looking for you.
Remember: 4 weeks ago I had nothing. No friends. Zero. I didn't know anything about the crypto world and I was terrified actually, thinking that the rich whales might not be interested in what I had to say. I kept expressing myself day after day. I refused to give up. I'm now a dolphin enjoying elevated status. Life is rewarding because I feel generous and I'm living my passions.
Thanks for this. I posted some incredibly personal posts recently and some really elaborate posts that took a lot of effort and it can be discouraging when they sit there not being seen or appreciated but overall I really do enjoy it here and enjoy posting and will keep doing so regardless.
To me, one of the most amazing things about Steemit, has been your journey from your first post here, to where you are now. I feel that you have a lot of powerful thoughts and feelings, and a great deal of writing skills. I've read everything you have written here, and watched a bunch of your YouTube videos, and have learned a lot. Thanks for another great post, and for continuing the conversation in the comments!
I'm pretty humbled that you've taken the time to read my raging mind. Yes I had a breakthrough some days ago. I'm not going to lie.
I think my days of suffering are coming to an end.......Steemit helped me so much!!!!!! Like my therapy that I couldn't afford for so many years....I'm getting that in here. Priceless!
The Key is to stay Authentic period point blank..Im advid on that and I dont care if people dont like that..I voted up for you nice post!
anyone called "arcaneinfo" is on my hot list.
speaking of which, maybe I'll make a hot list of the hottest minds on Steemit!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for your nice comment. Most of the time I do feel like a bitch, stirring up trouble wherever I go, but I do not wish to be silent about what I think could be improved about the world....'
I also agree that authenticity is the way forward!!!!!
You seem to be trapped into a female perspective of things and I hope I can offer you the other side of the equation. Another view point for you to consider away from the things you where taught (And I say taught because in your text you used very specific keyword that only have meaning in a very strict view of male-female relations).
Unfortunately Steem is geared towards popularity instead of quality. While that is present you will only see the problems you mentioned worsen.
"I am not immune to fear. To be alive is to be afraid."
In a strict sense you are right, but there are many factors that influence our lives, reducing our living experience to fear is not the way to go. Humans mostly fear the unknown, and knowledge gives us the control over our fears and channels them into productive actions towards our happiness. To be alive is to act, to build upon the world instead of letting the world merely act upon you, like an electron unable to leave its quantum orbit around the nucleus.
"Even I have recently been affected by the pressures to show off some aspect of my body in order to get noticed and rewarded by the male whale gaze"
Its not the gaze that will reward you, its the resources that the male will offer you. Its not so much a pressure being put on yourself, more like the natural inclination to follow the easiest path. Sure building a rocket with your bare hands and going to the moon is more rewarding but a lot of hard work ("pressure") compared to just jumping out in a parachute and letting gravity do its work.
On the other side, your image will be a reward for the male. Being allowed the often hidden intimate details of a woman does on a subconscious level increase the pleasure of the male. There is little he can do to avoid feeling that attraction and seeking it, its is a pleasing sight as is a beautiful landscape, an intriguing painting, an emotive sculpture, a melodic song.
Women know this and the ancient art of teasing, or the more modern burlesque is the male equivalent of the rituals of romantic pledges of the man to the woman and dancing to present ones physical fitness. We should not blame often teenagers unaware of these natural impulses to be drawn towards them. We should explain why they are so predominant, why our brains evolved to seek them, and how to take control of those impulses when appropriate to lead a life more freely and truthful.
"Female power is fairly non-existent and a woman's value becomes synonomous with her fuckability rating"
That is the female power. To have value for nothing else but simply existing. While all men need to earn power by their actions, most women have power just by existing. It is just the nature of things. Men give power to women by their need to be acknowledged by them, and women give power to men that provide benefit for them. Men are not necessarily looking for sex, but they are almost always looking for female validation. There is nothing that can be done for the fact that females have the exclusive ownership of reproductive access. Supply and demand. We can only create a symbiotic relationship, never a fully 'clonable' one.
"The reason we need a balanced whale population is pretty simple: once female and gay male whales exist, the value of the boys increases."
Unfortunately, no it wont. Female power will only increase (you just need to look at female dominated spaces like Instagram to observe this). The only thing that will be added is female competition, because more 'hot chicks' will start competing for the more scarce male attention (that will translate directly to value for them).
While you do benefit from a balance, it will be for entirely different reasons. A balance of content will drive topics away from the sexual interactions that scarcity introduces. But that will only happen if the rewards stop going for popularity and quality starts being rewarded in a meaningful way.
"Most men are largely unaware of the fact that women like me exist. To them, women are just a one-dimensional fuck tool that can be turned off or on whenever they want."
I'm sorry you think like that, because reality is otherwise. You are putting in the same bag indulgence in ones pleasures like smoking a cigarette or drinking a coffee with an actual human relationship. Men and women react very differently under different contexts. Sexual release will only sustain a man for a couple of hours, but its the multi-dimensional relationship that will provide balance to the male psyche.
I hope you don't take my words as an attack. I understand your concerns. I wish only to offer you the other side of your view point. One that is also not malicious, one that is as natural and freedom seeking as your own.
Best wishes.
I was referring to the phenomenon of males sexuality being increasing linked to virtual porn fantasy. That was my observation and it's still something that the older generation is not entirely aware of. We are moving into the digital sex simulation era and that will likely continue on, gaining widespread acceptance. I use fantasy every day to have a more fulfilling life. I use my imagination a lot though.......
It is apparent that you have not done any research on me within Steemit. For if you had, you would realize that I may be in fact one of the most fearless women who exists on the planet at this very moment.
Sometimes when I write, it is to channel the experience of the minnows within society. It's a writing mechanism designed to elicit the highest level of engagement. It's a psychological approach. It's a tactic.
I am glad you wrote how you see the world. It's a paradigm shift that I speak of, it's something that requires an awakening inside everyone. It's possible, if only people would believe....
While I disagree with you, probably because I'm female and you're male, I appreciate this open discussion. I feel that it is lacking on most platforms.
I will point out some oversight on your part though. You seem to believe that female and gay male whales will not make a difference. I think you are misguided in your perspective, probably because it's a straight male perspective. Your world is shaped by your sex. There's no getting around that. As I gain more power, I will begin to reward those who catch my eye. With me being a straight female, a lot of my energy is directed towards intelligent or somehow provocative men. The other women will see this. They will study me to figure out how I gained power. When they see that i gained power not through pimping my body, but rather through intellectual prowess, they will copy me. This is already happening on some level. I have mentored women here, given them Golden Tickets, and more. And I give love to the boys who seem to feel worthless. I am making a difference. You clearly haven't studied enough.
And I would mention the fact that the founders have ackknowledged that it was me who was largely responsible for bringing females into this site early on. I have gained significant power in a very short time and I am paying attention to the boys and girls who bring value to this site. They are also being rewarded economically.
See the founders tell my story in this video:
Your view is a shallow one, indicative of your matrix programming. I think the world deserves more.
I will die thinking this way, and I have enough evidence to realize that the war for dominance is just getting started. I enjoy games, survival wars. I am not afraid, actually. You misunderstood my writing and took it at face value when I speak of fear. As far as being afraid, I experience the usual amount connected to survival. Your perception of me is incorrect.
Thank you for your clarifications. It was not apparent the focus of your topic regarding the fantasy aspects of sexuality from your OP. May have been an oversight on my part. And for what is worth I share your concerns.
I did not research you because you were not meant as the target of my arguments, your words and views were.
Its not that gay males and females will not make a difference. Its that they will not bring the change you were predicting. Besides, individual personalities more often supersede our biology or sexual orientation than not in human interactions. I hope that content does not change merely by those attributes but instead by maturity, intelligence, empathy, creativity, humour.... and those are human, all human.
I'm glad you are making a difference in the way you create value on this platform. Personally I think you may be giving way too much importance to power. Most content created by the girls you mentioned lead their presentation and introduction with their sex instead of their contribution, if they do that then when people focus on that (male or female) they can hardly be blamed, that was the realisation I was hoping you would take from my reply.
"I will die thinking this way"
I hope you will learn many more things until you die. There is a lot in the universe to know, and humans take too many things for granted. Both you and I are more likely to be wrong in what we say than right.
"Your perception of me is incorrect"
I attempt to have no preconception of anyone. Apologies if some slipped through.
In due time, those pretty females will will become whales and it will be time for hot guys like me to shine ;)
ha! ha! You are right! It makes a huge difference! Then the guys start to recognize their own hotness which leads to them feeling better about themselves and the world. I'm eternally optimistic about such things for my own selfish reasons perhaps.....
A lot of the hot females might also actually like helping support their fellow women, regardless of their prettiness. :) (maybe wishful thinking)
I dunno, I never worry about putting valuable content or let's say original. Why should you be? There's always fresh new ideas, probably better. So not being a finite resources you shouldn't treat is as such.
Sure, you earn less money now but oh well, you earned 0 a week ago. Plus, the value of steemit is in long time growth not the NOW!
My last 2 posts are at 0$ but that won't stop me, already got 5 new ideas for the next week.
On and on we go :)
Enjoy!
you are perhaps more optimistic than most! Good for you!
optimistic? in what way? that we will have new ideas, new content, new things to write about? of course. that this will make money for us, not necessarily :)
be yourself for this one reason: you will make alliances that can dig you out of your own coffin. My new alliances here in Steemit mean more to me than the money (well, I think it's 50/50 if i'm honest).
i don't really understand your point. Why am I in a coffin? Where do i sign to join an alliance?
Thank you @stellabelle for this marvelous post. I'm a new member here myself and I do think steemit is an amazing place so far. And I bet I'll be even more amazed with time. Thank you once again. Upvoted! :)
thanks! I do feel deep down that I can make a real difference in the world and lessen human suffering, income disparity and increase creativity. Your reply makes a difference, thanks for the happy feelings, dear.
You are truly welcome. I thank you for your honesty in your replies. :)
I dislike liars like the plague.
Hey, do you want to know what I want to see and that would get my vote?
Make a photo collage of yourself and what you represent. Spend like all day on it. Pour your heart and soul into it. Show me your naked soul. A golden ticket is waiting if you do that with radical honesty.
That's the Steemit culture, my dear.
If you don't do art, then let me do it for you.
send me a bunch of photos, I'll make a collage, a really cool one, and we'll split the revenue. Teamwork! I have time and money to make. Let's get radical. and real.
I have done something similar in my introduction post, but you might be asking for something else? - I believe I've been somewhat like an open book in my introduction even though I could have added some more in-depth details about myself.
yes i just checked it out! you're full of mischief, which is great. You're my new friend, obviously.
And that made my day even better. I've followed you :)
coming from a guy, I guess, I am feeling really good.
I usually get shit for speaking my mind especially when hot babes are concerned.
I have a deeply philosophical understanding of this phenom. I want to talk about it soon.
It's kind of mind-shattering.
You'll always get shit for speaking your mind.. No matter what you talk about.. There's always "THAT ONE" specific person who'll never be pleased no matter what you do.
yes yes.....hey, guess what! I had no idea about something. I will let you in on a secret. There is a richlist. And guess who is on it? ME! I have been working my butt off in Steemit, and I don't spend too much time looking at my stats. But I'm on the richlist: check it out:
Here's the data. It tells you who has the most power and money invested in here: https://steemd.com/richlist
Oh, that's amazing! And now I've got myself a friend on the richlist :) I sure can understand how much effort you put in to things, I've read several of your posts and replies. I appreciate your efforts :)
I'm so happy for you, Leah! You've worked very hard, you deserve it. Enjoy!
I'm closing in to find myself in the top 100 L-O-L
I'll get there..... maybe.
Thanks for this table of the Richlist @stellabelle ! :)
LOL! :) "Fuck Machine"... that line made laugh! :) Thank you @stellabelle , I'm following the folks you suggested in this article. Cheers! :)
Thanks for being so genuine and sharing your story. :) As we discussed already on another thread, the beautiful women getting attention right now makes a lot of sense for the whales wanting to expand the number of people on Steemit. Men will see their posts and think, "Wow, a social media platform with beautiful women! I'm in!" Women might say, "Oh, here's where all the beautiful women are. I want to be like that." I completely agree we need more diversity in terms of the whales, maybe even, ideally, no whales at all with value spread out among the population (with the way the economics work here, I'm not sure that will ever happen... the haves gain even more steem power just for being invested). Until then, what can be done? Well... Time will tell. As more genuinely good content is created and more people join, the whale money will spread around a bit. Maybe they could even start giving good posts SMD tips to further spread things out. It's true though, as you said, once hundreds of thousands and even millions of poeple join Steemit, rewards will go way down for the average Steemer. That's a bummer, but at the same time a $0.01 reward is more than Twitter or Facebook ever paid anyone. :)
"Wow, a social media platform with beautiful women! I'm in!" Women might say, "Oh, here's where all the beautiful women are. I want to be like that." Your paradigm leaves no room for women and girls who may not be the most attractive physically but who are geniuses.........it is for this reason that I believe the world is in need of being re-visualized. That is a super shallow way to view the female species!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ugh......
Women have a lot to offer beyond their looks.......
The faulty programs continue to show me their old devices.....
I am not saying that attractiveness should not be rewarded,but when it is the ONLY metric being used, then we have a fucking shallow world, where physically unnacttractive women who might possess spectacular minds are not rewarded. You just described
the realty tv paradigm that never shows anything of substance....
This is fucked up. No offense to you, but I refuse to back down with my opinions.
Oh, and the whales are never going away. They did indeed get this ship running.....they are rewarded for that initiative and risk-taking....
Hey @stellabelle. Sorry I didn't explain myself well there. That's certainly not my paradigm as I was speaking in mainstream generalizations considering the larger population of people who might find Steemit. I'm not condoning it, just describing an aspect of reality (one I hope we can all work to change).
I completely agree! I'm sorry if my comment above didn't explain that well at all. It's a sad dynamic (from my perspective as an outsider) of female interactions regarding looks, fashion, sexual expression, and the like. Some women can be vicious to each other regarding physical appearance. Very few companies have been bold enough to represent real women in their advertising, but hopefully more will do so. From my perspective so far, many of the highly upvoted intro posts aren't just about beauty, but also about interesting people. Does beauty play a large role? Yes, but I'm not sure (from the posts I've seen) it's the only thing being upvoted.
I also think that's unfortunate and something we can all actively work against. Similar paradigms exist in other categories (non "manly" men, etc) but we don't need to go into all that. I certainly wouldn't ask you to back down from your opinions; that's what's so great about communication and free expression! Your pushback highlighted how poorly I expressed myself here and how naming the problem (as it exists today) got misunderstood as my personal views.
(side note: using a > before a paragraph turns it into a blockquote. Makes following the conversation much easier)
(side note x2: I think I expressed myself better in this comment, and I really appreciated your reply. Thank you! I don't think I'm a genius (as this thread shows), but I am working to improve myself and my opinions).
I hope this kind of toxicity isn't promoted.
This is spot on @stellabelle. As a young mail trying to carve out a niche in the #travel topic I see my posts getting passed up for ladies in bikinis. Unfair, yes, but so is life and I can deal with it. Not to say that their content is not valuable, I'm just saying mine has merit as well. The one thing that will keep my going is knowing that the community is young and these issues could or could not fix themselves. Only time will tell. Cheers!