gm frens.
I've been on a little bit of a writer's block for the past couple of days; not going to lie. I opened up my laptop a couple of times and stared and the empty screen. I did type a few lines only to crumple the imaginary paper in my head and toss it in the bin with a slight upside down smile of disapproval. I tried recording a video, but I ended up sitting in front of my camera with lights and mic ready to go. I couldn't come up with something smart to say.
Today I decided to improvise.
I literally sat out on the corner of my street people-watching to see if I could find some inspiration. Suddenly I noticed some people endlessly doom-scrolling on their phone right outside the window where I was. I waited for them to leave before snapping this picture; I didn't want to seem like a weirdo.
It was amazing. One guy spent like 40 minutes. What could they possibly be consuming?
News? The bitcoin white paper? their Tik Tok feed?
I assume it's the latter by the frequency of the thumb flicks, but I couldn't tell with certainty without looking like Mr Bean.
It got me thinking though. Why would anybody want to spend that much time online without earning money? The idea is ludicrous to me.
Companies way more experienced and intelligent than me can offer a much better explanation, but it has something to do with the release of dopamine. You see, social media is built like a slot machine: every scroll’s a pull, and you’re chasing a hit—maybe a wild story or something that pisses you off enough to feel alive. Even if it’s bad news, your brain rewards the novelty or the emotional jolt. The unpredictability of what’s next keeps you hooked, same as gambling.
But after being on HIVE for so long, "the dopamine hit" feels kind of cheap, doesn't it? laughable even.
I could spend the exact same amount of time building my proof-of-person, helping others grow their account, voting on proposals, earning dinero by curating content produced by other humans just like me.
So why would anybody choose to doom scroll over any of these?
The decision seems obvious, wouldn't you agree?
The only reason I can think of that people would chose to endlessly thumb swipe legacy social media for free is that they don't know about the existence of this alternate universe of self-custody, peer-to-peer, value-4-value interaction between independent citizens of the interwebs. I'll give everybody the benefit of the doubt.
I won't join them though.
I'm perfectly fine here working on interesting topics, sharing knowledge, curating content and earning magic internet money in the process.
Freedom is not for everybody I suppose.
If they find their way here, good. If they don't, they don't.
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I'm that guy from your thumbnail photo, on the toilet... That's the only time during the day that I spend on "traditional" social media... 😂 poop for poop... 🤣
For what do I use it? To find memes, silly things, and to share with others to make their day better and put a smile on my and their face... 😃
And regarding topics for writing... I had a lot of blocks in the past, but lately, I can't find time to share all that I would like to share... The recipe that you found by observing others (or ourselves) is a good way to find inspiration... Going to the comment section of an engaging post is a gold mine for future posts... 😃
Have a great weekend!!
Not going to judge you my friend 😄. If you'd like to take a moment to indulge, that's fine.
Thanks for the tip in finding inspiration! I'll definitely do some comment surfing this weekend.
Your comment is upvoted by @topcomment
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Thank you very much! Appreciate it! 🙏
The consumption of junk internet is unbelievable, even in myself I sometimes confirm it and it makes me angry. For now I have a firm decision not to join tiktok because I know it will be a big waste of time, although the damn reels are everywhere and it's getting harder and harder to avoid them. Undoubtedly my attention span in the real world is affected by all these networks and I am aware of it, I don't want to imagine how it is for school children or teenagers, the damage is terrible. I also know that there are days when I spend too much time on Hive, but I take comfort in knowing that at least I earn money for it 😅.
Hey, if presented with a choice of poop-scrolling or earning a little bit of money. I'll take the latter any day of the week. Earning some magic internet money on HIVE could very well pay for a trip and that's where I can step off the internet completely :)
I totally agree with you. When i was just stsrting my blogging journey, it would take me atleast 3 hours to post a content, now that ive grown familiar to it, it would only take me at least 30 minutes. And i use my free time to grow my account instead of scrolling through facebook and other social media platforms.
You're doing it right!
Don't forget you can use many other forms of media, like video. You can also create collectibles and put them for sale. The possibilities are endless and we are still early.
I hope we are. I've yet to explore other platforms and I'm still learning through veterans like you. Thank you for sharing :)
For me Hive is much better than youtube or facebook. There I could never get enough views and subs to get paid. Also on facebook some people have insulted my art a few times. That has never happened on Hive. So for me it is both more profitable and satisfying to post on Hive.
Profitable and satisfying is the name of the game. Way better than chasing likes on legacy social media :)
Writers block, I only get it when I try to write fiction, I suppose that's a variant? Otherwise.. it just spills out once I start typing.
It's been a couple of days. I've been actively looking for something to write about and ended up just giving up. Not a huge deal. I can always make a video spending HIVE at a coffee shop or something. I probably just need to go for a walk or have a good conversation with someone. I'm sure I'll come up with something this week.
At my gym it is the same.
People come in for a work out but most of the time they are focussed on their phone.
Endless scrolling.
I don't get it. Gym is for gymming. I plug in my headphones and zone out with music when I work out. Some people are just addicted to that damn phone.
I think people consume stuffs that they feel will make them amused or happy, and in this case, it's tiktok and Facebook. If people had the knowledge of the groundbreaking opportunity web3 has, I'm sure no one will be on Facebook and tiktok. Unfortunately knowledge is expensive
What do you mean knowledge is expensive? Isn't knowledge free nowadays?
Haha It really isn't free I suppose. People have to give their interest, time and effort, and inquisitiveness lol.
I can't help but feel guilty about doom scrolling. It's hard to resist the system.
Resisting the system is easier than you think. For me it started with turning my DM notifications off. That was a bit difficult at the time. But it only helped me identify distractions more easily and remove them from my day. Distractions are everywhere and if you get rid of them, you'll be much more productive in your endeavors.
Agree, Alex, if you don’t know there‘s ways to combine digital time with earning, you cannot change your Focus. I myself am mostly producing content while I am on my Smartphone, writing blogs, commenting or like this morning publishing new Podcast Episodes.
Hive has changed my way of using these Tools we have at hand quite a lot.
PS: I love this Mr Bean Episode! So funny. How he only realizes in the end that the other part of the exam is still in the envelope. 😂 „Stop writing!“
Haha Mr. Bean is awesome. Thanks for stopping by to comment. Like you, many here are also believers in building digital equity. Most people out there though, still have a vague idea or no idea at all.
It's quite amazing.
It gets surprising to me when I see just how many people spend hours scrolling without even questioning it. Once you realize there are better ways to use that time, it’s hard to justify going back
Like any normal distribution, the majority of humans behave that way without question. There are also outliers on the right side of the bell curve. I choose to by in that group.
and that's a great group I'll be in to Mr Alex 💯
*too.
You need skin in the game. Buy HIVE.
Sorry about the typo
Skin in the game, buy Hive it is
I guess we shouldn't really judge others, but the dawn of the cheap smartphone made a major change to how people behave. I was actually fairly late to it, but I got sucked in. I don't tend to browse memes and cat videos, but then I find enough to read on Hive. If I'm on the train I am usually listening to podcasts on various topics. That doesn't earn me anything, but I learn a lot. I never got deep into mobile games, but I played some. I will see people play patience or other time-killing games on the train. I just play Rising Star and I only have to dip in now and then. Back in my youth when I was bored I would play patience with actual cards, but then there was literally nothing else to do a lot of the time. Now we have all these other options.
So many options to learn and earn. I choose to spend at least a little each day doing both thanks to amazing tools like HIVE. Love this place.
Geocaching? Texting a notoriously late, or an always lost fried to finally meetup at the agreed spot? Arbitrage trading? There are zillions of quite all right possibilites ;)
Yes, indeed. The possibilities are endless, haha. Whatever they were up to inspired me to write this post. Maybe I owe them a tip.