Decentralized families and social capital

As I was driving to work I gave my bother, @galenkp a call. We exchange messages often enough and talk about once a week and even though until the summer we hadn't seen each other in twelve years, we have stayed pretty close. What I was thinking about is how decentralized my family is.

My father's parents moved from India to Malaysia, my father to Australia and my aunty followed, an uncle to Canada and another to the UK. My family is spread out all over the place too and there are several nationalities represented by marriage.

I wonder if this kind of split family history leads to creating personalities that are more independent in nature, more willing to go it alone in some way or perhaps that it is an inherent genetic quality. I find it interesting as when there are family connections there is more likelihood of remaining in contact but even that is difficult in an age where connection is easy.

A large part of success on Steem is building a valuable network, social capital. This isn't just about Steem in wallet though, there is a lot more to it than that however, it doesn't hurt going forward to have some friendly backing if and when needed. This group can empower a great deal of the action of individuals within and work as a team to face larger challenges. A strong network is valuable.

However, what this means is that each individual (especially if autonomous thinkers) will have a range of interests and potential conflicts of interest that can lead to fracturing over time. I was thinking about this a little when it comes to Steem and its continued decentralization process and spread. How strong are our social networks here, will they survive when people take their interests on to other platforms, various SMTs, have a wide range of capacity and capabilities?

The family unit is often bound by the blood connection, the fact that they are family culturally and even this is not anywhere close to a guaranteed network and is often plagued by internal rivalries and competition. In many cases, the closer people become, the worse the more narcissism of small differences come into play and extreme competition takes over, like siblings close in age and personality trying to outdo one another.

What I wonder is if people have thought through what it means for their social network and the capital held within once there are a growing number of interfaces that serve vastly different niches and personalities and offer more complete experiences on-chain. Currently, a lot of communities are connected through Discord channels but will people keep returning to the meetup point or will they slowly all drift away?

One benefit of having Steem Power is that at least at this point, looks like it is going to be useful across the entire Steem network including on SMTs. That means that those with Steem are going to never rock up to the party with nothing, they will already hold value due to their wallet.

It is no surprise that if an investor comes in and powers up 250,000 Steem, they make friends very fast and, these friends aren't necessarily fakes. Like often attracts like and investors tend to socialize with other investors, the same way musicians hang out with other musicians. Having the ability to invest pre-qualifies them in some way, in the same way that being able to play an instrument indicates a musician. Even if Steem has been earned and held, this indicates certain traits also and often people will find each other over time.

What is interesting is that the group has advantages sticking together but the decentralized environment encourages exploration and connection with a wider range of audience and relationships. This means that while tribalism is beneficial, so is striking out alone or in smaller groups. The nature of the environment has other benefits too.

I remember starting at a new school in a new state and going in without any baggage from my past. Essentially, an account could do the same here across platforms and decide to start from scratch for various reasons. With a wallet that travels of course, it isn't from complete scratch though.

I find the possibilities and dynamic changes of a decentralized community quite fascinating and the communities and groups that will navigate the waters the best, are likely going to be the ones that are made up of friends who can be apart for long periods but meet and pick up where they left off. Groups made of bonds that aren't based solely on interest areas as they will tend to be niche and platform dependent.

It is quite a different cultural shift to be part of a truly decentralized community as it offers possibility to interact heavily with very different types of people who would otherwise never meet nor be in the position to interact. Great friendships could start with nothing more than having powering up in common. and lead onto a very wide range of experiences and potentialities.

In some ways, a decentralized community will be able to solve problems much faster than a centralized unit as it will be able to find and assemble the right skills and talents on an ad hoc basis through a wide range of overlapping personal networks. Someone will always know someone and with an immutable blockchain, their history can be verified, even if they can't.

It also throws up other challenges as it could be that friendships are less lasting unless there is utility and continued interaction. It seems that in society these days, there is a lot more neediness and attention required among friends and out of sight, out of mind disconnects people quickly. Families tend to overcome a lot of this through blood and engineered gatherings but in an organic society, this changes things a great deal.

Perhaps it will lead to a wider range of experience and eventually to more talent , less crony based decision making but it is likely to disconnect relationships that might have previously been lifelong also. This untying from our tribes can lead to a great deal of opportunity but it isn't without its risks.

What I like about a network like Steem is that while holding Steem Power, one can always be a useful and valuable member of the network even if moving fluidly across the sub-groups and platforms.

We might not ever have Paris, but we could always have Steem.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]