The price we pay for our content

When I joined Facebook over 10 years ago, I didn’t give a thought to what and how I would be paying to use the platform. In my mind, it was another social media experience for free, not really knowing how much it would change our lives and the way we interact with each other, nor the fact that we would all be paying for this service in one way or another, because nothing in life is really free.

I still haven’t deleted my Facebook account and I haven’t even tried to find out what data they have gathered about me from my account. I’m too scared to know and I suppose I’m too used to the laziness of how we all “keep in touch” with each other these days. Does anyone remember writing those long emails? No wait, how about when we actually put pen to paper and wrote letters to be posted? Yes, it’s all gotten a little too easy these days. I mean, I don’t even have to reach out to anyone to find out what they’re up to as the information is already presented to me on my feed. And don’t even get me started about the freaky adverts that coincidentally pop up within minutes of an online search for a similar item.

As someone who regularly shares content with fans as well as friends and family, it bothers me that once it’s posted online (although I still own it) there are some licensing conditions which means that Facebook can use your photos if they want and in whatever way they see fit, and you’re not at liberty to ask them for payment. Even though it’s unlikely that this will ever happen, it still bothers me that these terms and conditions are necessary for us to be able to share our content on these centralised platforms in the way that we do.

Enter, the Decentralised Apps. There are a few social media ones now, including Steemit (yay!) with more on the horizon still to come. I have been an alpha tester for Howdoo, which is a Dapp forking off EOS; “A DECENTRALIZED SOCIAL PLATFORM FOR USERS, CONTENT CREATORS AND ADVERTISERS”. You can find out a whole lot more on their website howdoo.io

It’s nothing like Facebook, nor is it trying to be, I’d say that it’s more a combination of WhatsApp and Instagram. Some appealing aspects are that it will reward users and content creators, and how good behaviour will also be rewarded, plus it’ll allow you to control how advertisers will connect with you. It could also potentially help to eliminate bad behaviour such as cyber bullying.

The token sale for this one ended last week and we are still awaiting news about exchange listings. And let’s get the laughs out of the way now: yeah, their UDOO token kinda sounds like DOODOO! But it’s also kinda clever when you put it together and say, “Howdoo Udoo?!” See what they did there?

Anyway… If you’re interested in finding out more, there are several places to do that, Telegram, Twitter, Medium, etc. There’s a lot of information out there, and it’s been covered by some well known names in this space, like Crypto Love, KDubb, and Keith Wareing. Here’s my own little update I did a couple of weeks ago:

I’m definitely excited to see what happens next with this one, and I’m hoping to be able to migrate to this platform so that I can continue sharing content with my three Fs: family, friends, and fans!

Thanks for taking the time to read my post. X

P.S. Sorry about the MASSIVE picture. If you can tell me how to make my pics smaller I'd really appreciate it!