The availability of internet allows for many other technological evolutions and one of which are social media platforms. Social media platforms are basically online platforms/ applications that allow people/ users to meet, connect, share ideas and contents. Information dissemination has also made it easy with the advent of social media, making old means of information dissemination go into extinction or have low usage.
Now, there are majorly two categories of social media applications which are centralized and decentralized. Both are very useful but I will be using Facebook and Steemit as a case study while also stating why I prefer one over the other. Noteworthy is that Facebook is a centralized application while Steemit is a decentralized network. But first, let us understand the concept of centralization and decentralization.
As the name implies, centralized social media platforms are platforms founded, owned and governed by an entity that is, the founder. Although, there are others who work with him, his decisions are final. He decides how he wants to run his application. This was actually the first type of social media platforms in existence before develop brought about decentralized platforms.
On the other hand, decentralization entails a shared governance between the founders and the users. In decentralized platforms, users have a say in the governance and decision making on the platform. For example, Facebook is run by Mark alone that is, in terms of decisions making whereas on Steemit, we have what we called witnesses who follow in making decisions on behalf of the users.
Rewards for Engagement
Another vital aspect is that of rewards. On centralized platforms like Facebook, users are not rewarded for their activities, publications, ideas and engagement. Reward and profit is only made by the founder and his team. Meaning, there is no giving back to the users. Whereas decentralized platforms like Steemit allows users to earn rewards in the form of cryptocurrencies like STEEM, TRX, STEEM DOLLARS. We say that decentralized networks serve as job opportunities as well as help in improving financial state of people. For this reason, I use Steemit more than I use Facebook.
Censorship and Freedom of Expression
Over time, we have all heard cases of censorship on centralized platforms but it is rare on decentralized platforms or rather impossible. Censoring entails silencing a user or removing user's contents because the founding team do not like it. We see that this in turn opposes freedom of speech. It is impossible to remove any content once shared on s decentralized space like Steemit because it adopts and uses blockchain technology. One characteristics of blockchain is that it opposes alterations; once information is shared, it is saved forever and visible to everyone.
The list could go on but I'll pause there for now. There are many other advantages of decentralized platforms over centralized ones. These merits form the bases for which I prefer Steemit over Facebook in this case. This doesn't mean that I don't use Facebook or not Facebook is bad.