I also see some problems with the activity and the engagement on Steemit these days.
I am participating in a writing challenge and my last two posts about it received absolutely no comments.
Some people noticed and I also think that some (or maybe a lot of) people stop writing and commenting, when the price of Steem is down.
This is a very big disadvatange of Steemit.
Under this blog post @mejustandrew said "people are doing everything for money" as a reply to a surprised comment, but how could people do EVERYTHING for money?
For example see the Facebook. I don't use Facebook nowadays, I deleted my Facebook account many years ago, but at least Facebook have real interactions.
The money earning opportunity (for the most of the people) is not (yet?) involved/present on Facebook.
But recently I heard about Facebook getting involved in the blockchain technology and creating it's own cryptocurrency.
I think that whatever crypcurrency they will make, that will destroy the real engagement on Facebook, just like on Steemit.
The problem is that when money or other rewards are introduced into the platform, people start optimizing their rewards. This works in a similar way to grinding in games. If something in a game gives you a certain reward, people try to optimize the way they get those rewards by finding a specific strategy that they repeat every single time, having a negative effect on their gameplay experience and turning it into ‘grinding’.
With Steem, people optimize their interactions because there is a reward attached, turning engagement into mindless work. @mejustandrew means that people, when there is a monetary incentive, will do everything for money.
I personally believe that Facebook’s cryptocurrency will not do all these things that Steem does, it will probably just allow people to send money and maybe make a share of Facebook’s profit from advertising. Facebook is wanting to make it super user friendly, and they have little to no experience in this space yet.
I (and @magic8ball, just read his comment) believe that we will be able to change that, and I actually believe that Steem is slowly changing for the better.
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