Are you in the Circle?
Apparently, I am. But I’m not in the loop.
Circles are the latest social media hub — the place where you want to be. It’s replacing followers on Twitter and friends on Facebook.
And yet, Google+, the company’s newest social-networking effort, looks a lot like the latter social networking site.
You organize people into Circles and you can choose what you share with them. There’s a news feed, called a Stream, and a feature called Sparks that encourages users to plug into news that interests them. And there are things called Hangouts, a 10-person video chat that’s way cooler than anything Facebook has to offer thus far.
The best part? You don’t have to request to be friends with anyone. Or approve (or ignore) friend requests. Always the awkward part about Facebook.
A look at Google+
Sounds great, doesn’t it?
Except I have no idea how this whole thing is supposed to work.
There are so many terms I need to get used to: Huddle, Spark, Hangout, Circles. I was just getting used to tweeting and DM-ing. Now I need to master the Google+ lingo while managing the same friends I’ve already organized in Twitter (in lists) and Namesake (in conversations) on a site that looks like my Facebook.
I have a headache.
I’m wondering if all this social media stuff is really making me more social — or more socially deficient. I spent more time these days managing my sites — posting pics, responding to replies and comments, browsing status updates, endorsing followers, “like”-ing photos of double rainbows — that I don’t have time to really socialize with real people in real time in real life.
Is this really what social media should be about?
13 Comments
Really? *sigh* Guess all that’s changed is Nero now Facebooks while Rome burns……or something.
Nero, Facebook, Rome — Now I’m Confused+!
The players: advertisers, social networking site owners, the unwitting public. If we think in terms of the great radio station WIFM… what’s in it for me we observe the following: Unwitting public… wants to find old friends, likes seeing photos of attractive members of the opposite sex, and possibly find their next romantic endeavor. These are good reasons to use social networking sites. Advertisers: if you can reach hundreds of thousands at a reasonable price hallelujah! Social Networking Site Owners: if you can show advertisers and potential site purchasers how many users you have you can potentially become an extremely obnoxious billionaire.
In summary, they are a bit of a fad and like all fads they will fade. The ones who got in early like MySpace and Facebook and a few others will make someone rich, and then someone will think of something a little better or a little different and the cycle will repeat. But most likely a lot of us will get really bored and stop using most of them.
BTW: I use QQ to keep up with friends in Asia. It has way more users than even Facebook.
Right? Who uses MySpace anymore? (I think I still have an account…) I just wish life were simplier — including my life online. I feel overwhelmed that I have to pay attention to everything: my blog, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Namesake, LinkedIn. It’s just too much!
It is too much, I’d almost never use it if I was living in Hawaii again. and that I hope will sort itself out soon enough.
Cat,
This is all too much. Here’s a quick test to determine if you are becoming more social or deficient:
1. ask yourself do you spend an equal or greater amount of time on social networks as interacting either on phone or better in person with friends, relatives or even work pals
2. do you feel it’s necessary to maintain all these networks to the point of becoming a daily chore list
3. you look forward to new social networks as a means of increasing your overall interactions throughout the day
If you answered yes to all three, Please become less cyber & more human…
Don’t mind me, I still use a dumb phone [to match dumb operator!, heh, heh]
1. I spend more time with people face-to-face than online. Then again, I know more people via the Internet than through my daily life. That’s not good, right?
2. Yes. It’s part of my daily to-do list.
3. Yes, it’s a way for me to interact with way more people. I do like the fact that, through sites like Facebook, I can connect with friends/family who don’t live here anymore. That’s been helpful.
So I answered no to one, yes to two. What does that make me?
Answering like the way you did makes you struggling. As a journalist & a teacher, don’t you feel the instinctual need to better understand in depth the individual or situation at hand even if the venue is so inefficient as a one to one talk? It seems as a budding cybernaut, the temptation to increase your accessibility is a great one & used in a reasonable way can reap great benefit. Your motivation to keep in touch with friends/family not within reach is a good one. I still internally debate about my growing reliance on computer for my news & entertainment. You are still human, because you question the technology…
Hello Cat, I think we need to spend more time socializing IRL rather than on the computer or phones.
That’s what Derek tells me all the time! LOL!
I have never heard of Google+ before the blog today. I may give it a try. I never liked Facebook and never much visited or did much with it. Not having hand held internet access, Twitter never made any sense for me. There is one SN site that I do enjoy, but it seems to occupy huge amounts of time to keep up. As far as getting to know something (perhaps mostly fake) about people from all over the world, it has been very interesting, and it has helped me practice my language skills, written anyway.
Looks like Zuck is getting some of his own… eat that Mark, LOL!
Something new will always come along, and the older ones will adapt, reinvent, or ride into the sunset.
Facebook has always been a one-trick pony. They should already be into their second or third idea by now. Google started as a search engine, but they’ve explored other avenues and created new markets and services… Same with Apple to an even greater extent. How many companies that were started in 1976 are still around today with the presence of Apple?
Facebook may have played their cards too long without swapping a few out or upping their ante. I think just like MySpace, FB will be replaced by G+. From what I understand, they already have 10,000,000 members and expect to have 20,000,000 by the weekend. It took FB two years to garner that membership level.
was trying to say something to the effect of that old addage about “nero fiddling while Rome burned down-fall of the Roman Empire…that in todays world-going to “hell in a handbasket” the “emperors” would be Facebooking(modern technology) instead of “fiddling”. Well, except in the case of Anthony Weiner…..the “song” remains the same…..only the faces have changed…..