A BIG THANK YOU TO STEEMIT: And Why Facebook Should Be Paying Us Too
Why Facebook should be paying US
Like all of you, I was positively smitten with the entire concept of this wonderful platform from the word go. It has been a nail biting, white knuckle ride since day one, for me at least. Like a modern day Gold Rush, we the prospectors have flooded in to stake our claim and reel in some much needed returns for doing our part in the ever expanding, ever profitable market of social media. Its a time where blockchain technology and collaborating Fintechs can part the Red Sea of decentralization for the anarchist in all of us to cross into the promised land. Let us not forget about the Myspaces, Facebooks and Reddits of the world as we climb ever higher out of the censored mud from which we have evolved.
Those of us in the "here and now" can rejoice and give a resounding hallelujah! For we have waded through the social muck and mire the Zuckerbergs of yesterday have led us through. Though we might not have suffered wandering for 40 years in the .com desert it seems we haven't been fairly compensated for our efforts now have we? Thanks to the likes of @dan and @ned, at last we steemians find ourselves soaking lavishly in an oasis of community that feels like the first sign of refreshment in ages.
Don't See It My Way? Look Closer
An August 2015 article by the New Yorker sheds some blinding light on how much the "free-ness" of Facebook costs each of it's unsuspecting users. in this piece sociologist and social media researcher Zeynep Tufekci says she wanted to pay to use facebook. Diving deeper, she explains that she wanted Facebook to offer a cash option in return for the social media giant to NOT record what she does and to NOT show her targeted ads.(roughly 20 cents per month according to her calculations) stating that she would give them roughly the amount of money that they stand to make selling the ads that she was seeing on her page daily. Not surprising to anyone, her requests were ignored.
Simply put, Facebook makes money selling personal data provided freely by the users
Isn't that nice! Years of giving away boat loads of money worth of your personal data in exchange for "free" social interaction? Don't know about you, but I'm extremely happy to be apart of a new kind of social media. A world where a well timed vote or thoughtful comment can earn money instead of feeding an invasive advertising monster that loves to walk off with cash that could easily go into our pockets instead.
Don't think 20 cents is a boatload? Consider This...
That data is useful for advertising, which is Facebook’s main source of revenue. But the data is also an asset. The two-hundred-and-seventy-billion-dollar valuation of Facebook, which made a profit of three billion dollars last year, is based on some faith that piling up all of that data has value in and of itself.
Your 20 cents worth equals 3 billion profit!
Three weeks into steeming and I have felt my share of ups and downs, my fingers are more calloused than they were during my first month of guitar practice and my eyes are playing tricks that have brought on some awkward conversations with my roommate.
@fireriseace spoke about sleep deprivation in his post and I can attest to the struggle! I have spent just about every waking hour thinking about how great of an opportunity we have here. My addiction has consumed me. I don't spend time on sports and entertainment anymore. I'm struggling at work. I'm ready to break free again and buy a one way ticket half way around the world so I can write about it and live how I was meant to truly live. I'll try some more bizarre foods and discover culture like never before. It might take a lot of work, but damn if this kind of work doesn't beat clocking in everyday!
I truly feel like we all owe a big THANK YOU TO STEEMIT for the opportunity to write, currate, upvote, flag, down vote, discuss, argue, socialize and just be ourselves here!
We really couldn't ask for a better place to be
Do you think Facebook, Reddit or Twitter could provide you with the means to get further in life? In my many cumulative years on those platforms I haven't seen anything to indicate that there is any real value to the user, the very user that those platforms bank on.
So Honestly, From the Bottom of My Heart, Thank You Steemit and all of my fellow Steemians! Cheers to making this place the best!
Yours Truly,
mguy808
I've often pondered this myself. Thanks for the read!
I suspect that if steem doesn't collapse, it will eventually influence (but extremely influence) the strategies of big social media platforms. in fact, we're the drivers of this. so we should focus on keeping this place clean and minimal of spam...
Zero spam preferred lol. But yes, we are in the driver seat for sure!
Excellent post!
Hi! This post has a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of 8.8 and reading ease of 70%. This puts the writing level on par with Leo Tolstoy and David Foster Wallace.