What even is steem?

Don't let them fool you into this thinking that steem is a blogging platform. It's a social life platform built on top of a blockchain. Yes, it's primary use at the moment IS blogging, as steemit was the first use case and an easy way to show proof of concept, but at the end of the day,... Steems a personal online database where the limit to your storage is how much value you put into the platform... this is where all that RC and Voting stuff comes in.
As an individual on the platform, you can use it to play quite a few games, post memes, keep in touch, or just rant random words on your wall for the internet to see. Some may see this wall as a blackboard to plan projects, some may see it as a bathroom stall with a sharpie in hand, some others will see it as a blank slate for which to create something new. Everyone will see something different in steem, as we are all unique. Steem cleaners will do their work on the bathroom walls where the content is deemed whatever the cleaner decides is messy,... So that may not be the best thing, in my opinion, to view steem as, but some will, maybe it's the only thing they are mentally capable of. * * Shrugs * * whatever steem may be to you, that's perfect!! Find people like you, and use the platform for all it's worth. I feel you may want to take a little bit of "camping know how" with you, and try to leave it a little better then you found it, but that's just me. If you want to do more on the platform, so the same you would with any other item in your life, put some time and money into it, we pay so much for Netflix, online storage, coffee, soda, beer, random games... I could go on and on about what we "waste money on"... But the short of it is this, if you want to see change, put your money where your mouth is, throw a few bucks at the platform each month or week or however you budget, and USE steem... That's why we are all here.. it doesn't matter HOW you use it, just that we do... And if you don't have fiat to put in, blood, sweat and tears work too...
So what are you waiting for? Cancel that Xbox subscription, cancel Netflix, skip those candy bars, and buy in to some steem, the more people that we get on this cause,the more we dilute the "whales" that the little guys feel are abusing and killing the platform. Major key alert, big announcement, those whales don't matter... They aren't killing the platform, they may be "selfish" by a poor man's logic, but every business man knows, if you want your business to succeed, pay yourself first. But if you aren't in business, don't worry about that, and just don't upvote yourself, but when you do start to worry about the intangible and uncertain future and want the next generation to have something more.. you will start to develop a little of that business mindset.

And to answer the question again from the title, steem is whatever you, the user, wants it to be. Nothing more, nothing less. An online database with a programmable interface.