A breath of fresh air
Time flies by and I can not believe that I have been on hive for two months or more already. Although I was so busy just surviving for the first two or more weeks that I had little time or energy for hive. Since then I have been more engaged, apart from the past two weeks as I got ill and I don't have magic holes in the walls like most people where electricity flows out from. I don't have walls as such.
I would summarise my first impressions since joining hive as a huge breath of fresh air which I am gulping up and filling my lungs with. After twelve years on Facebook and fourteen warnings in six months I feel reborn and reenergised on hive.
Technophobic troglodyte
As a dinosaur born in another millennium before the internet existed I have finally fully committed myself to catching up as best and quickly as I can. Hives intricacies initially appeared daunting and it will inevitably take me (a lot) longer than computer savvy folks born into this millennium. My young pal laughs at me and reassuringly informs me that I will not break the internet by pressing the wrong button! And so I will continue taking slow and steady baby steps and I know I will get there in tte end. They say you cannot teach an old dog new tricks but of course that's not true.
Revelations
Hive unexpectedly enlightened me with several revelations. Whereas my previous perceptions of the potential of mainstream social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube were extremely limited before 2020, they took a scary nosedive after covid 1984.
Upon first reading hives user guide aside from feeling a little daunted, to put it mildly, I felt filled with enthusiasm and excited. It seemed revelatory to read about so many things. As a long time advocate for maximum decentralization and freedom of speech, I felt at home, finally. Reading about the means to encourage quality content and behavior warmed my heart.
Word craft
As a reader, writer, poet and comedian it's fair to say that I love words and word craft. The precise words, timing, etc are obviously the essence of poetry and equally of comedy. My street performance is based on concise wordplay with my signs. And I also make word based postcards. My poems are often short. My signs are in my mind condensed poems. And my postcards create condensed words and meanings to the maximum of my capabilities.
Where am I headed with this? I have sensed that for some folks hive posts need to be long. Personally I'm all about quality over quantity. That's not to say I'll only make short posts. Far from it. My introductory post was long and took twenty plus hours to prepare and post. Admittedly I am a very slow typist and only have access to my phone. I'm also living off grid and only charge via a small solar panel. No sun no fun.
Posting, upvoting and downvoting
I recently saw a post called, if my memory serves correctly, a post. It consisted almost entirely of the words a post. It caught my attention particularly because it received a lot of upvotes! I think one person tentatively questioned it but still upvoted. This was the beginning of me wondering about 'leaders' and 'followers.' I'm tempted to use the words royalty and sycophants. Forgive me for I am a fool, a court jester. It's in my blood. It's my job to poke fun at nobility and risk my life in the process!Whilst drafting these first impressions I found myself considering self censorship around this issue! Will I pay a price somehow? But, ultimately, I've questioned authority all my life and I'm not about to change now.
I've made a few mistakes so far like the first time I tried to upvote a post. Mistakenly thinking the downvoting button would reduce the percentage of my upvote. I immediately apologised and won't make that error again. I've possibly made other mistakes and may make more but as I said I'm trying hard to learn as much as I can as fast as I can.
Comments and engagement
I've become aware that some people upvote posts and videos without reading or watching them. After my first six or so posts it felt truly wonderful to receive hundreds of upvotes. But it confuses me that perhaps nobody actually watched the videos I painstakingly created. And it took a while to receive my only two comments and one follower. I imagine (hope) that this will change with time. Please check out my posts. If I say so myself they are great! And some folks autovote because someone else upvotes a post or blog. This seems strange to me and difficult to fathom in my small mind. But I'm eager to understand and maybe I will get some comments after this post to help me understand all the nuances.
Rewards
I am experiencing several new and quite thrilling experiences in my life right now all coalescing together beautifully. Expanding from writing into live comedy, visual and video art and an audiobook. And growing and microdosing medicinal mushrooms. Hive is in the middle of it all. I feel my work shown on hive is becoming a multi disciplinary gallery and I am absolutely loving it. And that's before the fact that I am also earning crypto currency.
Two years ago I didn't have internet on my phone. My only internet access was one hour per week day in a library. And I only got my first smart phone a few years ago. As recently as three months ago I was completely unaware that it was even possible to earn crypto currency for posting and commenting on a social media platform. Now I feel I am transforming from a technophobic troglodyte into a crypto caveman! Proving that everything is possible and the only thing to fear is fear itself.
Thanks so much for taking the time to read this and playing the part that you do within this fascinating community.
I will finish with one of my favorite quotes from the situationist international.
'The task is simple: to reconstruct life itself.'
Much love and respect to you all dear hivians.