Steemit Until Valentine’s Day
I have a new social media hobby to tell you about
I’m off all online projections of creative practice (besides this newsletter and Steemit.com) until Valentine’s Day, my 1st anniversary on Steemit. I want to do this to show my appreciation for the blockchain blog I post to every day. As far as interaction and feedback goes, it’s a cyber leap better than Facebook® and Instagram®, owned and manipulated by a misogynistic child-man plutocrat overseeing the mental breakdown of humanity while pleasure surfing on his little sea scooter, surrounded by bodyguards and the temporary Hell we’ve made on earth.
I suggest Steemit to subscribers who dabble in painting, music, photography, video, dance, dog-walking, cheese-making, beer drinking, etc. Just sign up, get your keys and hide them (very important), make an introduction post, find a community that interests you, and earn some crypto with your activity (posting, commenting, connecting). I still have not figured out how to turn Steem into Bitcoin or US dollars, but that’s because the ghouls at J.P. Morgan Chase and Washington D.C. are sleeping together like brother and sister dreaming to take over the world.
Here is my wallet on Steemit:
I’ve been posting for 11 months. At first, just periodically, but then I received a lesson in platform usage, a process called “powering up”, and it goaded me to take my time on Steemit more seriously. “Powering up” elevates your influence (and blog value) when you’re ready to cash out. I haven’t made $3,000 in 15 years. Granted that money isn’t money until I make it money, and there’s a way—I just haven’t figured out the process. If I lived in less totalitarian economies like the UK, Venezuela, Canada, Indonesia, or Russia, I could turn Steem into dollars in a few minutes. However, here in the U.S. we’re made to feel like criminals for posting creative content on a blog that directly challenges Jamie Dimon’s urge to turn us upside-down and shake every last penny out of our pockets.
Here is what I wrote yesterday to followers on Steemit to announce my temporary abstention from Facebook, Instagram, and all other social media platforms:
The Ultimate Steemit Exclusive (For Me Anyway)—A First Anniversary Celebration/Dedication to My Favorite Internet Place
It’s been nearly a year since I joined Steemit. I got on to get off Facebook and Instagram, for reasons I feel most people ever do—they’re the most antisocial of social networks. Still, several years ago I made friendships there that I keep today, the sole reason why I don’t delete these accounts immediately. But I made friends in elementary school too, even if I never plan to go back there. So what gives? Why do we fear closing the book on a billionaire’s social media empire with its deeply gross, misogynistic beginnings? After 12 years of sharing my creativity to Facebook (and 5 years on Instagram), I haven’t earned a single Steem dollar in return:) In fact, posts to galaxy Zuckerburg often leave me feeling hollow and wanting. It’s so much time and empty space traversed with an occasional “like” from a friend or acquaintance who’s doing his or her best to keep up with “friends” who are just doing their best to keep up. “Today is Fred’s birthday!” “I baked a cake!” “Donald Trump is evil.” “Joe Biden is a sweet, humble angel of the Lord.” “If I take a photo of my new toilet, and post it at 7:25 p.m., I’ll get 22 likes, 5 comments, and a share by morning coffee time.”
Facebook and Instagram. 21st century empty duress media.
Last February I had enough of the faces on Facebook—myself and neighbors were becoming too expressive for our own good. And groupthink became unbearable. Politics reduced to whatever Fox News or CNN propagandized. Friends, actual friends I have made over the years, in large part by virtue of their political philosophy, were reposting talking points made by FBI agents on TV. Furthermore, I was reminded by Facebook five times a day that I was as an artist stuck in a debilitating culture—lower middle to middle class American Caucasions (for the most part), heavily comfortable with access to every thing imaginable to live a content and healthy existence, but unsatisfied at every turn, bored nearly blind all day long, with ennui for a nightcap. I was glimpsing everyday into the lives of other people who, like me, have access to health insurance, a working automobile, Netflix® streaming, and perfect safety, but cannot squeeze ourselves out from the grip of society’s pliers—at least not until (as the cultural imperialists say) the seventh colonoscopy or retirement, whichever comes first.
So I found Steemit to escape another confine of middle class morality.
As far as social media platforms go, it is a more real world. I still don’t know how to make money (of any kind) from it. And it’s probably better this way. Swimming like a dolphin, then an orca, then a whale who gets so big, he blasts his last ego song out the blow hole, and calls it a day—is fine with me. I enjoy the contact sport enough already. A Friday paycheck is nice, but not necessary.
Therefore, to mark my one year anniversary on Steemit, I vow to post here and only here until February 14 (Valentine’s Day). No posts to Facebook, Instagram, nor recent platforms like Blurt, Hive, Ecency, Waivio, List, Cent, VYB, POB, what have you. I must continue to update my False Consensus Effect because I have gracious subscribers, some who actually pay for my services. However, all posts there will be seen first on Steemit, which I hope might also stock some new plankton into the sea:)
Thank you Steemit, and especially @stef1 and @art-venture for welcoming me last year with such grace and enthusiasm. Thanks to all the good people who have shared their stories and tolerated mine. I have a lot of fun here. I must warn you though—signaling Steemit as my only outlet will put a reading burden on people whom I do not wish to burden. So I suggest just whistling past my posts, to seek better ways to occupy your day. Feel free to leave my pictures and rants to the annals of the blockchain.
¡Viva la Steemit!
So all you poets, painters, foodies, and photographers,—amateur and professional alike—get on Steemit and make a few bucks. It’s your content, and you should get paid for posting it. At present, Mark Zuckerburg needs us to make himself richer than the Gods. But he isn’t a god. He’s just another child-man playing monopoly with our human expressions. The best way to end monopoly is to stop playing it.
Here are some more paintings from this week:
Update!
Last night’s practice with one less Amateur: