Thinking back to a very long time ago, I remember being part of a study group evaluating web usage as it relates to whether people were Introverts or Extraverts.
It was a rather interesting discussion, in the sense that it turned out — perhaps not surprisingly — that introverts are more extraverted in online groups, while extraverts tend to be more "at a loss for words" in a written, rather than spoken environment.
The discussion and study lasted for several months, and one of the primary takeaways was that extraverts are more likely to be online for learning and information but not for social purposes, while introverts are often seeking/practicing social engagement more than anything.
Being an introvert myself, I didn't find any of this particularly surprising, as I have long insisted that I prefer writing "because my mouth doesn't have a backspace key."
There's some deeper research to explain some of that — which I will only touch on very briefly here — namely that extraverts tend to access speech from short term memory, while introverts access speech from long term memory... explaining why they often seem "slower" in face to face conversation.
So what is the purpose of this very long preamble? And what does it have to do with Hive?
Well, it's no great secret that engagement has dropped of significantly since the "early days," and it has dropped off even more if you compare to early days on the legacy chain.
Much speculation can be had as to the why, and the where to lay blame, if there's any place to lay blame.
Now we have new initiatives working, in the form of @commentrewarder and @topcomment to help inspire engagement... but will it work?
My purpose for blogging — and I may well be in a minority — was as much for social reasons, as anything. I enjoyed digging into subjects I really enjoyed, from philosophy, to psychology, to gardening, to collecting, to business — and then engage in some form of discussion and engagement on these topics.
"For the money" was never my primary motivator, perhaps because I had already been burned repeated by other sites promising to reward content creators — that's right, folks... the idea of micropayments for content predated our community by a good 16-17 years.
Initiatives aside, one of my primary lessons from all these years of writing that engagement is typically the result of engageworthy content.
Yes, maybe that sounds basic to the point of rudeness... but it's true!
Which brings me back to Hive, and the path forward. From where I am sitting, a significant part of the reason engagement has dropped off on Hive has to do with the content, as much as people's willingness (or not) to engage with it.
When content becomes a bit "formulaic" and somewhat obviously seems to be structured to "catch upvotes" rather than stimulate discussion, then discussion is just less likely to ensue!
Again, this is likely painfully obvious.
That said, maybe we forget.
I expect a fair number of people feel anxious about not publishing on "popular" topics most likely to be seen and rewarded... rather than perhaps more meaty/personal topics that might catch a lot of attention and fire up people enough to engage. Of course, not everything has to be meaty... lately, I've noticed that many of the most engaging posts on Hive are related to travel, perhaps because they have beautiful photography and are highly relatable.
Some topics might be well covered, but they are not relatable... including the 1000th rewrite about the same minor piece of technical analysis of something.
One of the best pieces of writing wisdom I got was that the best approach is not to "write FOR your audience,' but instead to write for yourself, which keeping an audience in MIND.
Content invariably becomes more engaging if what we share "comes from ourselves," rather than from some structure we "think" will attract an audience.
I read a fair amount of content on Hive that is definitely "good," but it's not necessarily engaging, so I often end up just acknowledging it with a small upvote, but I have nothing to comment on.
My interest in pursuing this also has to do with one of my Hive goals for 2025, which is to be much more active in the commenting and engagement side of things... including one of my old "practices" of following the "recent posts" feed several times a day to discover interesting things.
But I look for things you can actually have a conversation about... because the whole "nice post" thing just never did it, for me.
Not at all related to this post... but perhaps making it a bit more relevant... as I write these final words (I started writing this post this morning when Hive was about $0.38) our Hive token has reached $0.63, which is its highest point since August 2022.
I add that as a bit of an afterthought, because it's almost inevitable that the activity level in the Hive community will increase significantly as the token price increases.
Will that activity level include more engagement?
Time will tell!
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great Sunday!
Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation! I do my best to answer comments, even if it sometimes takes a few days! As extra incentive, I've activated a 10% @commentrewarder bonus on this post.
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Created at 2025.01.05 00:05 PST
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