Hey Internet, I think it's time we took our relationship to the next level

Hi Fellow Steemians,

I'm late to the party, eh! Still relatively early in the larger context of the blockchain revolution, maybe, but it still feels late. In any case, I'm very excited to join Steemit! The content that I've seen here so far is really good, and that's what it's all about.

I remember first exploring the shallows of the internet in my younger years. It didn't occur to me that it was a very big deal ... nearly all the things the internet offered at the time were things that I could access through other means, albeit, not all in one place. It speaks to the privileged life I had, I suppose. There was the arcade, the movies, the radio, the telephone, magazines & books & newspapers, TV ... all of it.

It became cool in my youth to reject telecom and be a bit more rugged than it. Being outside, doing things in groups like go to the arcade, go to the park, skateboard, build a tree fort ... that was the order of my day. Unless we were printing racy pictures of nude women, computer work was seen as a hassle.

As time passed and computers become more ubiquitous, we largely agreed that it was an unwelcome burden that we 'had' to use the computer for so many things. A bit of groupthink was probably at work here. Like many of my friends, I was a late adopter of SMS. We teased the early adopters who ignored the world around them while being fixated on a tiny screen.

That set of attitudes have certainly changed.

Over the years, it's dawned on me that the internet is changing everything pretty quickly, and mostly for the better. There are some growing pains, to be sure. Valid criticisms, for instance, about face-to-face social interactions evolving in unexpected ways under the influence of heavy telecomm. New vulnerabilities have cropped up too, vulnerabilities that could not exist without the internet to facilitate them. The dragnet operations of mass surveillance outfits come to mind.

I digress. While I still need to be outside a lot & away from the screens in order to be happy. I still prefer company in the room with me than remote conversations. I like to build things, and embracing technology for construction has made space for the same attitude blossoming in regard to computer programming. I've been using the internet a lot more recently than ever before!

In 2012 I switch careers from electrician apprentice to financial consultant, as a way to infiltrate financial services & witness for myself how the industry would respond to the Occupy Wall Street movement that was peaking at the time. I wasn't particularly impressed by the industry response, so I washed out of that position.

The internet was fuelling my information flow at the time, and I joined a small boutique internet marketing company as an on-site freelance copywriting. I learned a little bit about programming & photography through that adventure, but not as much as I'd hoped.

It was around this time, in 2013, that I first heard about cryptocurrency. Being naive to technical aspects of computer science & having seen many pranks, hoaxes, and scams perpetuated online, I was hesitant to jump into it. Simultaneously, I was engulfed in a push to end the drug war (focusing on cannabis), and was wary of the optics of Bitcoin surrounding contraband. I didn't want any extra heat on me, as I was pushing the limits while staying above board.

Around that time, there was this huge influx of revolutionary ideas around homesteading, permaculture, de-schooling and re-wilding ... it's only fair to say, I spent most of my time online simply absorbing as much of it as I could.

While the ideals Bitcoin & cryptos in general really appealed to me, I held off, and focused more on permaculture as agriculture, renewable energy technologies, and cannabis for industry.

I shouldn't have held off on Bitcoin. That was a mistake, and now it's time to take my relationship with the internet to the next level. The immutable, incorruptible, distributed level.

So, now I'm late to the party, but I'm here for the long haul! And with it, I'm jumping into some programming & computer science learning programs, and putting my face-to-face / face-to-nature strengths to the same.

Nobody in my town seems to be interested in cryptocurrency yet (that I know). I intend to change that.

The blockchain is nothing short of a revolution in computing, and as all revolutions go, everyone (or most everyone) needs to get on board in order for it to really unfold. Steemit (seems like, from what I've seen) an excellent example of the benevolence of Blockchain.

There's always resistance to change & there is still a powerful sentimental undercurrent in my community / peer group that computer work is a burden that's best avoided (if possible). But it's so beautiful, what's happening here right now, I think people will be drawn to it when they see it. I know I was.

It's an exciting time!

Thank you for reading this little introduction. Looking forward to all our collaborative content creation & curation!