Why is Steemit like high school?
Every time you go on Steemit, you are made painfully aware of where you stand in the pecking order. High school was the exact same way. It was filled with badly clashing archetypes, cliques and daily battles. So is Steemit.
An archetype is:
“a collectively-inherited unconscious image that is universally present in individual psyches”
We were all thrown together in a socially clashing heap in high school and those same forces are now being played out in Steemit.
We have all left our highly insular social, ego-stroking Facebook worlds that largely mirror our own tastes, beliefs, friends and world view. If we don’t like someone on Facebook, we simply throw them away with a block button. We’re not forced to see their posts on the trending pages and witness how much the whales give them in monetary rewards. The last time we had to confront the shit from people we hated was in high school. The last time our identities were challenged or threatened was also in high school. By college, most of us had figured out a way to create a tribe and become a functioning part of a group. High school, however, was a clash of the titans. We’re not used to it at all. It was brutal. But we learned because the fights for dominance taught us.
High school was a new environment rife with fights for dominance. There were new people and a new set of hierarchies. Battles for dominance, both intellectual and physical were found in every classroom, every hallway and in every football game. People lost their status overnight and were forced into social submission by the herd. Risk takers who were successful became instantly powerful. Risk takers who faltered ended up licking their wounds in a corner of submission with vicious ridicule ruining them. High school was filled with brutality and daily competition to stake one’s position in the pecking order which was determined not by how intelligent or magnanimous one was, but how dominant and socially manipulative one was.
Those who were skilled at dominating others, through any means necessary rose to the highest social levels and were given the lion’s share.
Then social submissives gathered around the select dominant ones and would get rewards doled out to them, based on how hard and deep they sucked their various body parts. The social submissives realized that in order to survive, they would need to pick a dominant leader and help them maintain their status, because their status was dependent upon their chosen leader’s status. They couldn’t become a powerful leader themselves, so it was in the submissive’s best interest to help maintain their chosen leader’s dominance.
The most manipulative teens tended to rise massively in popularity, up the food chain, gaining clear, easy access to the most desirable sexual mates, parties and goods while the various outcasted cliques shared more intimate and rebellious pursuits on their own, in the wild, away from the established hierarchy. They were generally bitter that they had been outcasted and therefore, created their own hierarchies within their own small tribes.
Among the established popular males, there was always one who was the supremely manipulative co-opter and pathological liar.
Whenever caught red-handed he would destroy the truth tellers’ reputations and accuse them of doing the reprehensible actions he in fact did. He’d steal musical taste from the punks, a few lines from the enfant terrible reading Nietzsche and secretly buy weed from the stoners. He’d wear a notnomde Varsity jacket with letters stolen from the quietest kid who he’d threaten to beat up if he ever told anyone. He was popular through his violence and exploitation of the honest, shy kids and no one dared to reveal his fraudulent, manipulative mask. He wasn’t the smartest but he was the most manipulative. The only one who had the guts to rip off his mask was the enfant terrible.
The enabler is the girlfriend of the #1 popular guy. The enabler drives the popular guy home from parties when he’s too drunk. The enabler ends up repairing the damage the popular guy did to others when he was drunk. She takes care of him when he’s sick and helps him with his homework. She cleans his car and cooks his meals. The enabler is the definition of a slave.
The enfant terrible was scared of no one.
He bowed to no one, not even to the leaders of the Anarchy club. His weapon was not manipulation but rather a blunt confrontation of the way a human operates. For those not familiar with the concept of enfant terrible here’s a definition:
a successful "genius" who is very unorthodox, striking, and in some cases, offensive, or rebellious.
He was not correct 100% of the time, for no human is capable of such a feat but he challenged everyone who crossed his path. He was the pure artist, terrifyingly candid, a free thinker who ascribed to no social niceties, no kissing of the king’s feet, no time period’s cognitive conveniences. He drew his sword instead of shaking hands, which in a flash, rendered weak minds into a pile of quivering ineptitude and disgust. To the enfant terrible, hierarchies appeared to be maintained through fakery, cowardice, and mediocrity not through truth, genius and brutal honesty. An enfant terrible is best characterized by French poet, Arthur Rimbaud, who after listening to a shitty writer at a dinner party, ends up doing and saying this:
"In the days of Francois, wise and benevolent giants roamed the countryside and one of their primary functions was to rid the world of pedants, fools and writers of no talent, by pissing on them from a great height."
Actually, you will find almost the entire cast of Steemit characters in this clip, sitting around the dinner table, er, the Trending Page, listening to the latest whale-shilled writers of no talent.
Very few liked the enfant terrible because he refused to accept the flawed foundations on which the high school social hierarchy was built. He made people uncomfortable because he forced people to examine their own psychological constructs in a brutal way. The only ones who could stomach his presence were other enfant terribles, misanthropes or geniuses.
Then there was the rich kid who was nice because his daddy owned the land on which the school was built. He didn’t have to struggle in any way because he was already at the top and everybody knew it. Life was easy, but his intellectual abilities suffered because of the softness of his silver spoon. He couldn’t hold his own when mentally sparring with the enfant terrible and because of this, his modus operandi was just to keep quiet and only say what was absolutely necessary. Daddy’s bank account had created an intellectually weak mind.
The super geek was there and had his own ideas of how things should run and those ideas resembled a highly intricate maze that ordinary people were unable to navigate. But the geek could rarely get these ideas into reality because of his lack of social skills. The super geek tended to put his energy towards constant improvements of minutae instead of big picture changes based on social needs. The geek had good intentions, but lacked a basic understanding of how emotions rule decisions in most humans. Instead of producing frictionless social designs, which would alleviate distress, he tended to fine tune details that exacerbated in-fighting, chaos and friction. His world was full of absolutes, power struggles and hyper-intricate designs and his solutions unconsciously carried this cognitive load. The geek did not know how to read people or respond to their needs. He relied on others to navigate in social waters that he barely understood. He often chose the wrong people because of his inability to read or take note of social cues.
The cheerleader was happy even when she was not. She rarely delved into areas of unknown mysteries and thought everyone operated from a well-meaning perspective. She looked the other way when someone was mean and purposely avoided all conflict, preferring to remain in a happy and content environment. When asked what she liked, she waited for the other person’s response before she stated her preferences, making sure she aligned with the other. Critical thoughts were snuffed out instantly, before they had time to mature. The cheerleader died not knowing who she was or what she stood for in life.
The trending page is the lunch line at the high school cafeteria.
Image Source
The shitposts on the trending page are similar to the “meals” served in a high school cafeteria: bland, industrial grade mass-produced garbage that barely passes as edible. No one outside the school would ever dream of touching it.
Its taste inspires none or very few, and its production is carried out in a mechanical, thoughtless way. It looks like food, but it is not. It’s lacks artistry, freshness and vitality. The whale-shilled shitposts are the exact same thing.
When you examine the trending and hot pages, you can see who sits at the whales’ tables and who has carved out their own chair on the floor or in the basement. The hot pages usually contain more substantial meals than the trending page.
You can see what writers the minnows like and who they don’t. Oftentimes, the minnows’ preferences are not liked by the whales, but occasionally the two overlap. Once you establish yourself as a critical thinker, though, your whale support gets removed and you’ll be thrown to the basement to carve out your own table with pizza rinds, dirt and left-over fruit cocktail. The whales will go in search of new lobotomized sheep who will produce sterile, mediocre stories that fail to inspire humans on every level. Or the whale will just purchase his own lobotomized sheep writer kit to perform these writing container operations for him. Only the most innovative, stubborn or hungry writers will be able to build something remotely stable from these cast off ingredients. The sensible people will leave.
The pre-packaged whale-backed shitposts only serve to represent reading material, they are not real, authentic, talented reading material in and of themselves. They are symbolic written containers full of recycled half-assed garbage, fluff and tunnel vision drivel that should never have been released into public view.
I wonder where do you find all that room for intrigue, clashes etc? I mean you write something, click post, and that's it. The environment, as it is right now, is not very conductive for a lot of interaction.
Unless someone is actively seeking such interaction, gossip, cliques, etc, they are unlikely to have such an experience. For most people the experience is actually the opposite: They feel it lacks interaction compared to other social networks. So how can it be that at the same time, one can say that it's like a parallel monologue, while others see it as an intrigue-filled type of system? Obviously the system can't be defined by either.
My guess is that the experience is relevant to what one actively pursues. If one wants to stir shit up and be cliquish, they'll probably find a way to do so. If one wants to just post, while not bothering with all the unnecessary drama, they'll also be able to do so.
In the end of the day, how much drama one wants to put in their lives is their choice. Some people are actively pursuing drama and controversy, others don't.
This is exemplifying the way this game is built and how it is played. Centralized hierarchies create this type of atmosphere. It's not very social at all, but I am referring to the underlying power dynamics. Many who choose to not look at who is giving out rewards will not see this stuff. The main point of this is to illustrate it is not really a blogging site that rewards good writers, but rather a game for those who are willing to do whatever it takes to become popular. Also, there have been scam artists outed in here, lots of them. I've witnessed a lot of really shifty stuff in here, and more ugly truths will be revealed. My point is also that there is no hiding in here, as past deeds will come to haunt those who have done them. It's a brutal environment in many respects and instead of getting ego strokes, many get a slap in the face.
As perhaps one of the, technically speaking, finest writers on this platform, Stellabelle.......
it is, existentially speaking, such a god damn shame that you have placed your skill at the service of two or more of the Seven Deadly Sins for your Muse
Lust
Gluttony
Sloth
Wrath
Envy
Pride
to, as Solomon would say, "soweth discord among brethren".
Lest I come across as being overly religious, let me state categorically that I am no such thing. Just a keen observer of human nature and the ends to which talented people employ their labors.
Take for example that supreme orator of the French Revolution, Robespierre the "Incorruptible" (ha!). He began his career as a monarchist and opposed to the death penalty. He ended it, ironically enough also on Madame Guillotine, having unleashed through his oratorical sophistry gushing rivers of blood and having set the stage for the emperor to come. Full circle. All in service to his Pride!
Do you, Stellabelle, retain sufficient presence of mind to critically examine your muse(s) while attempting to arouse negativity in readers here on this platform? Or are you now perfectly possessed by one or more of the list above?
Where will you lead us, Stellabelle?
It might only be because I'm so new here (it's pretty clear from the amount of posts and your reputation lvl that you've been here longer than most), but my experience has been really different. People welcomed me in, made sure I knew the ropes, and voted for my posts to make sure I never lost heart.
No, it's not always easy to watch someone get a truckload of coin for a post that wasn't the greatest (in your/my opinion), but as we continue to go forward these things will change. The power dynamics will shift as people that stick with steemit gain more and more power as time goes on, especially if the user base/retention continue to grow appropriately.
As far as it being "not really a blogging site that rewards good writers, but rather a game for those who are willing to do whatever it takes to become popular". I think it can be either one, that's up to us. If there are scam artists here, then rest assured that you're right: there no place to hide - especially in the blockchain.
I just can't see how it is going to happen now. I am struggling with seeing how on earth the price of Steem can even go up much let alone other changes needed here. There is nothing to drive it up, but everything to drive it down.
This is because people don't understand the economy of Steem. The base payouts are measured in Steem Dollars, not Steem. One Steem Dollar will always be near One Dollar (USD). So mostly it just means that payouts will involve more Steem. I plan to do a post on this, but haven't had time yet. Soon.
people usually have trouble seperating the writer from the writing.
So don't take this the wrong way because I really don't mean this as an attack, but you seem very jaded and unhappy here. Pretty much all of your posts that I come across are talking about how bad it sucks here. Personally I'm really enjoying my time here, and I joined after you so I'm definitely not one of the early adopters/whales. I see a lot of problems too, but none of them are really show-stoppers in my opinion. Complaining about them isn't really doing much to fix them either. I think that with some time, a lot of the problems will start to go away. In the meantime, does it really help to keep writing all these negative posts? Maybe you would get more enjoyment from the platform if you took a few weeks off, and came back with a fresh perspective to just be here to make friends and have fun. I used to follow you and upvote a lot of your posts. I know my small upvote doesn't mean much, but I'm sure I would start again if I started to see more of the old @stellabelle back.
No one is forced to do anything. If we are still operating under social conditioning at our age that is a sad state of affairs.
Funny to me is how much your opinion changed after you were banned from the whale's table. Ugh oh, high school bad! [ PS: It wasn't so bad when my posts made 1000$ but you know, MY FOOOD was exquisite not this bland servings we have now ]
So yes, I don;t buy this post too much, but I do enjoy your arguments either way. Keep at it, there's always a gang of cool ignored kids at will go on to be incredible adults, maybe you can dominate those.
I don't equate being on steemit with high school. Especially not the high school you went to. It sounds like it was brutal. However, I sorta dealt with
high school like I currently deal with steemit.
I just mind my own business. When I feel like saying something that I think has value, I say it. I don't go looking for fights nor do I respond to inflammatory dialogue. Praise those that deserve and need it.
Now I wish I could say I have done that all my life. I haven't. But steemit is my kind of place, I guess. I get value out of it, reading and commenting on things that interest me. I don't have to interact if I don't want to and I can spend as much or as little time here as I desire.
I guess what I am saying is, I like steemit. I didn't have preconceived ideas of what it should have been. Could it be better? Sure. I have mentioned a few times that I don't like the flagging system, for one. If things get to where I don't like my experience anymore, I will move on.
C'mon stella. Writing about this isn't improving the quality of steemit. I liked your old posts. Write about yourself or something you care about. I want to see positive posts lovely.
I have noticed your post was flagged by R4fken, well known steemit hater.
I am for justice and I am here with all my Steem Power to help you resist his hate downvotes and let your post be visible for steem users. Upvoted!
LOL. I wrote something very similar a while back: https://steemit.com/steemit/@techslut/how-steemit-is-like-highschool-musings-of-a-freshman-steemian
Oh hell! Your title and mine are nearly identical. I never saw your post though..........it didn't make it to the trending page.....Yeah, true.
Well, then maybe you should follow me! :P
ok
We're not all in the lunch line. I haven't checked the trending page in a long time. Wouldn't know who's on it. I try to check my followers and new pages. I understand the analogy - mind you I never fit in when in High School either.
Same here. Who looks at trending? I have my feed with the awesome authors I follow.
If no one looks at it, why does it exist?
I didn't so no one - i said me. I couldn't tell you what others are doing. My only point was that not everyone plays that game of trying to be noticed by the trending stars of the platform. It exists because it represents what a lot of people want to see (who are the popular people) - boring!
I have gone into trending on topics. That is a good feature. But the general trending page is... like the buzzfeed of steemit.
Yes, I agree. Within specific areas of interest there is value. The overall trending page is different. There is actually a lot of good information, just most of it doesn't make the main tending page, which is why i gave up on it some time ago.
WOW .. Very strong words shows much anger and disgust towards the platform that once was content king money maker, its becoming a memory to most.
The ones that stick around and support it are the ones who made ties to the steemit mafia...
I hear you @stellabelle and I understand you as most all users here.. Steemit is becoming what it wasn't meant to be, you now see government like groups trying to rule steemit as if it was a piece of land... setting boundaries setting rules "you must post this and earn this".. "We don't like this so you don't get paid".. what happened to decentralized platform?
It was an amazing ride for most we complain but we stick around.. trying to remember and recapture the good old days of steemit which was 3 months ago...
Lets see what happens to you steemit...
All the writers will leave if there aren't enough readers.
One don't start painting for others, so it's with writing, you have started because it's fun. So let it be fun and share how much fun you have.
My feed is only of people I like. And I stop following people when they do things I completely disagree with.
I think part of the issue of being stuck with people we don't like is because there just isn't enough people in the system.
If and when there are more people in the system we literally could make a living by posting with just people we get along with.
It's not like high school, because I'm NOT required to be here. I'm here because I like the idea of getting paid for posting, I stay because I know just how much I could make.
But you're right about Facebook, my Facebook feed is insular. Steemit is the only place where I come in any sort of contact with the volunteerist way of thinking. That does not occur for me on Facebook.
But Steemit needs a lot more people, then the whale hunting popularity contest will decrease.
truth.
Whoa, interesting words and comparison. I was a drama geek in high school. Never considered myself one of the popular ones but it just naturally happened. I wasn't a jock nor did i ever want to be but I sure did play sports and I always hustled my ass off.
I guess I kinda see the point try to make as my social status would probably best be rated from lunch time. I had no clique or exclusive group of people I only hung out with.. it was only a period of 30 or so minutes to yap off as many ears, anyone was willing to put up with..
Maybe i brought those same habits on to Steemit but with my line of work.. I look for the insults, negativity and back stabbing sons of bitches and use that energy to create even greater material. Feels good when I see my creations trending because i know I'm inspiring... that's a feeling I wish I took advantage of in those high school days... an understanding of the power I was blessed with. Something I now appreciate as a contributor on steemit.
If my material is low quality government cheese to the majority then I apologize for not living up to majority standards but it's not going to stop me from creating and inspiring others who actually appreciate an alternative view or opinion about life and the struggle to deal with this crazy ass world
i am clicked up with a snake in tall grass
Interesting read. Just a few fragmented points
I have not log in for a long time since i dun blog a lot at steemit actually and generally not so comfortable with talking about myself to strangers. I still visit facebook and twitter and the likes because my friends are there so there is probably nothing for me to stay in steemit, both content-wise and friends. Personally, i dun find the trending content attractive and so far only followed a few people who talked sense. But i noticed that even the few people who talked sense dun seem to be posting much in steemit. I am the occasional crypto trader, and of course short steem many times. As for blog, maybe just a personal blog. I can see perspectives from perhaps both a content creator and trader. There got to be a midpoint where both roles can meet and work together to make the platform work. HODL steem as a trader is not possible. You can only count on investors who likely want to reward their favorite exclusive content creators. So my advice is probably to have layers of exclusive hidden content from public and featured writers, be it whales or community voted. I am pretty sure steem blockchain may be able to do this.
Steem and steemit probably need a big hype again and the price may then probably go up to have a steak lunch maybe :-)
Anyway, i like your frank opinions. You have a vibrant blog personality and that's why you have many followers. They may not upvote you with big bucks but they are secretly reading your blog for free (like what i do, i dun log in frequently). If steemit fails, please update where you are going.
Hello dear @stellabelle. Really, this is a post the way I like it. Really have things here that I will never understand and I never want to stop to understand. Congratulations for the post and a big hug.
what do you not understand?
I understood everything.
This post is objectively great, compelling writing.
Very good. Maybe everything is high school. The promise of steem is that is could be a meritocracy but I think uneven steem power distribution is stopping that from developing.
I feel your pain, stellabelle. I deal with that as well. Tons of upvotes, no whales or dolphins, just little, medium and large goldfish with your occasional goldfish vote from a whale. The taste of the kale in the whale vomit is a nice reward, eh?
great read. I don't check the trending pages. i rather follow the people in my list
Trending pages are the snow form yesterday. It gets dirty very fast. Just go out and search for the new fresh untouched snow...
Maybe you'd enjoy spending less time in Trending and more time at the gym (@steemsports) and activity center (@bola) to bet on games and play word and guess-the-movie games. I'm enjoying actually earning some Steem currency, as opposed to spending hours and hours writing something that earns almost nothing. I even won on German ice hockey, about which I know even less than North American ice hockey.
Resteemed as usual, altough I know that supporting your posts may potenially put me on an unofficial blacklist :-) But I don't care :-)
As a Dutchman, I haven't experienced this kind of highschool. It sounds terrible, but perhaps it is a good preparation for every-day life in the USA. We have school types like the Gymnasium which I was fortunate enough to attend, where I found only smart and mild-mannered people without even a hint of the bully in them, but which unfortunately also shielded me from some of the real-world arseholery later in post-university life. We also brought packed lunches from home 8-). Generalising from my own experience, the USA-highschool aspect of Steemit could be a bit of an unexpected culture shock for some Europeans. I at least didn't expect such chickenshit adolescent behaviour here when I joined. I addressed some of it here, but that posting nowhere near covers everything. Fortunately, there are also plenty of pleasant people here that make staying worthwhile. Still, I share your anger.
This post is waaaaaay too scrolly for my scrolly mouse wheel thing! Report for #nuggetized retraining at High School immediately! Return to Go. Do Not Collect 200 Steem Dollars!! (OK rant over now!)
Wow, what a great post!
We need high school food like this (real cases from a extraordinary Korean highschool)
hey thanks! Perhaps I exaggerated a bit? People usually cannot seperate the writer from the writing, nor the artist from the art.
Ha! I guess you got all my references then?
Wouldn't it be fun to have an account for each of the archetypical high-school personality types and write persiflages? Or perhaps you already have and do 8-).
Well said. I will follow you.