It's getting tougher and tougher to discern real support from the virtual...

This morning, I spent a bit of time contemplating the question brought forward in this article, asking "What's your view on bots as a promotion tool? Is it a necessary evil?"

On Steemit, bots have been used as a tool to artificially boost the popularity of certain posts and have created highly profitable accounts in some cases. Now, with prices being pretty suppressed, it appears that the return on investment on bots may not be as good as it used to be, but it still seems to be a very popular way to get articles up into the trending category and to thus garner more followers and ultimately, more votes.

Upon first using the Steemit platform and being naive about the use of bots, I was often baffled by the high recognition of certain articles that really didn't seem to offer a great deal in value. As a new blogger receiving very little attention, it was quite discouraging. Now, of course, I know better, and can usually discern when an article has earned genuine support versus artificially up-voted or bought support.

Keep in mind, this isn't just a problem on the Steemit platform. It's a disappointing reality of most social media and extends beyond the media into bot implementation in all manner of things online. For example, many crypto exchanges use bots to increase the appearance of volume and to move prices in a given direction with buy and sell walls and spoofing tricks. Bots are also used in reviews, news, comments, and all manner of situations where opinions can be swayed through the persuasive effect of artificially-created peer pressure.

The thing is, once you are aware of bots, they lose their efficacy. I no longer feel a sense of injustice or disappointment that certain articles trend on Steemit when they are clearly up-voted by bots. It does little for the respect of the article poster and does not garner any real respect from the community once it is understood that bots have indeed fabricated support for the blogger. Tools on Steemit that alert readers to the usage of bots on certain posts have become more prevalent - this has resulted, ironically, in bots calling out other bots.

This decline in efficacy applies to other situations where bots are used as well. I can now recognize when bots are planting prices on an exchange and know that it is an attempt to either suppress or bolster prices, depending on the situation. This helps me to resist the "peer pressure" to buy or sell in a given scenario. And when consuming other media, I am less likely to just read a given article and accept it at face value without doing some more research and checking things out more carefully.

The key then, is knowledge and discernment. If more people are made aware of bots and their usage in social media, the effectiveness of those bots subsides. The trick is to use your own discernment and research rather than blindly trusting whatever is presented as truth. Then that pressing sense of peer pressure just won't feel all that pressing any more.

*This is not professional trading advice - it's just my opinion!

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image source:

http://automates.xyz/what-are-bots/