In an algo based environment, “like” was used as reward scheme to boost post hence more likes, more visibilities. Also easier to duplicate with bots. And this let people wanting more likes and it stuck.
Then again there are also people like me who are indifferent and like a post just because, or to bookmark it.
But to say zaps doesn’t reward attention seeking behaviour is wrong - why wouldn’t people be selling out on contents if it rewards them monetarily ? Why not ?
They will but when there is financial incentive it changes the thought behind the content. It becomes how do I provide value rather than how do I spark engagement.
Just a matter of time before someone trains an AI chatbot to crank out notes for zaps. Train it on a large corpus of notes, figure out what gets zaps and what does not, take it from there.
If it provides content people value enough to zap, Im all for it.
what is defined as “value” is subjective to viewers. Having a metric counter is gonna want people doing anything to get more attention, more zaps, more financial incentive.
The positive is that this helps cater to wide scope of content-based gig economy - influencers, writers, musicians, photography, artists etc.
Unfortunately the attention seeking psychology impact won’t be resolved by zap as it’s a form of reward scheme. The good thing is that there is no algo-based system that enables businesses to abuse this impact and thrive on it.
But we should always revisit this topic and have debates like this because it’s going to provide a check and balance to see how this influences society esp younger generation.
“Value is subjective to viewers”. Yes! As I said, “Sats reward content people value.”
You stated that you like posts “just because”. I would say you are not as likely to do that with zaps because you are considering what the content is worth to you.
Will zaps get rid of all attention seeking behavior? No. But I believe it will get rid of a lot of the negative content meant to simply illicit a response/like for attention as that is less likely to receive zaps.
Zaps get the audience to consider what they value in a fiat world where likes are free and worthless.
