RE: Hello steemians! Self-intro & What a time to be alive (really!)
Hello and welcome to Steemit! What you wrote above is wonderful and all, but it needs to be accomplished voluntarily. Wealth inequality for example is almost always mostly the fault of the poor person. Don't live in debt, live below your means, and be productive. You cannot do that where you live? Move. No, it is not easy, but it can be done.
There are a ton of other webpages to help you with Steemit. Here are some of the best for beginners:
https://steemd.com/ (This site is used to keep track of your voting power and other stats. You do not want to run out of voting power, and you only get so much per day. I keep my voting power around 80% for example.)
https://steem.makerwannabe.com/ (This site will tell you who follows you, who unfollows you, and who mutes you. It is great for meeting new people too. I regularly check it to see who has followed me to see if I should follow them back.)
https://steemit.chat/ (This site is the official chat webpage for Steemit. There are Discord channels too, but I usually stick to the official site. Come in to network and meet new friends. You can directly message people there too, so it makes it easier to communicate with your closest friends.)
Oh yeah, there are a lot of bots on here. If you see a cookie cutter reply, especially to your intro post, it is almost certainly a bot. Check the account's reputation. If it is low, I would recommend just ignoring them. Everything is public on Steemit, so you can go look at an account's comments and replies. Are they all the same? It's a bot.
Adding photos to your account as a new Steemian may be confusing at first too. The easiest way it to click to "Submit a Story." Once in there, use the built in Steemit tool to upload an image from your computer. Below the posting window, you will see "Insert images by dragging & dropping, pasting from the clipboard, or by selecting them." Click on the blue text. Once the image is uploaded, you can copy and paste the link into your account settings.
Verifying your identity is very important because it will get you more support and people will trust you more. The best way to verify is to link back to your Steemit account by using another public social media account. For example, I posted my Steemit articles from here through my Twitter account. Another person posted their Steemit information on their Facebook account. Some people will even post a video of themselves writing out their account information since that cannot be Photoshopped. The more famous a person is or the more valuable their content is, the more important it is that they verify. If a new account falls within those two categories and fails to verify, it may get blacklisted.
Again, welcome, and I've followed you! If you have any questions about getting started, look me up on the chat site.
Hi @finnian - thanks for all the advice (super helpful) and input!
I agree that it's not about the situation you're born into (as much as it is a leg up) but how you can better access and utilise time and resources needed to self-educate and self-generate 'wealth' -- which isn't just monetary wealth but also your happiness, physical and mental wellbeing.
The problem I see currently which contributes to poverty within both developed and developing countries is a central controller limiting lower socio-economic groups' ability to initially access those resources because empowerment of these groups would be to big of a threat to their dominance and ongoing existence, which serves to perpetuate their class subordination within a society. There are many examples of this (cash cropping, mining-interest funded dictatorships etc.).
I think with the rise of cheaper access to electricity, communication technology and a wealth of information we will start to see empowerment of these groups on a larger scale, and communities within communities that will facilitate their own organic grassroots growth. Time will tell right!
Thanks again for the comment and support, and hope to stay connected with you :)
PS -- not surprised by the amount of bots on here, given the financial incentives for people to game the system. Hopefully Steemit can keep it under control...
Centralization and systems of control, governments, are definitely a large part of the problem. As you said, the easier access to information helps. The Internet has changed things for the better in many ways. Now people don't even need to go to public schools. They have a library in their pocket. That's even true in poorer places around the world. If you can get a smart phone online, you have a university at your finger tips. That's going to change the world. It means less power for existing control systems.
Nation states are tax farms for oligarchs and rulers. The less government we have and the more decentralized the world is, the better and more free life will be. Governance without government is possible and works very well. It is done at the local and community levels too. That's where it should be done too. Communities care about each other, and they have common interests and desires. They cannot be co-opted by outside banking or big business interests either. They defend themselves the best too (militia opposed to military or police forces).
I gave you a 100% Upvote to raise your rep a few points. :)
Indeed, and given the rate of falling smartphone costs I'm quite hopeful that this change will self-perpetuate faster than central governments can react to. People talk a lot about technological obsolescence, but I think an even more interesting concept is institutional obsolescence - which we will likely soon see with declining power and role for central governments, banks, universities etc....
And 1000x thank you - seeing the bump up to 28 made my day!!
Yes, we will create alternatives and simply walk away from those control systems. The only concern I have is that they may bring us to war to avoid the mass awakening and liberation.