So, news flash, I’ve jumped on the Google Plus bandwagon. I’ve been looking for a way to get out of Facebook, but that site is like an informational black hole – the more data-mass you add to it, the more relentless its gravitational pull. Similarly, the whole reason I got into Facebook was because Everyone Else Is Doing It. Same reason I got on MySpace. Same with Orkut, Twitter, Naymz etc. The greater the critical mass of people (with whom you presumably want to connect with – or show off to), the more you want to use the site.
Unfortunately, the privacy issues with Facebook – and any SNS, for that matter – are significant. The unending series of sneaky manouvers on the part of Facebook, including automatic opt-ins are a constant irritant. Add to this the kludgey implementation, slowness, and lack of useful controls, and my love/hate thing is teetering perilously onto the hate side. It does seem as though Google Plus will be a better Facebook, but it’s brand new and lacks many of the features. (Though if they add “Farmville,” I might just swear off of social networking sites altogether).
In spite of this, the whole idea of centralized social networking web sites annoys the heck out of me. I suppose I’m just an old-fashioned internet hippie (for anyone who needs further proof, I’m actually paying for Usenet access). Yes, I recognize the need for a “commons,” but why is it that we get roped into these monolithic social sites, when all the sharing and collaboration tools are built into the web itself? Once upon a time, we had web sites and web rings. Add a decent search engine, the ability to bookmark (or tag del.icio.u-sly or whatever) and you’re done. And yet – I suppose out of laziness – I continue to visit FB daily, feeding the “monster.” Conflicted, you say? You bet I am.
In a way, Google+ is more threatening than FB because Google has its hands in so many other pies. That Google holds my email, my calendar, my contacts, and now a significant portion of my online social life means I need to be even more aware of privacy risk. Perhaps this post would be more appropriately named “Out of the Frying Pan.”
It seems to me that, like the software industry, the WWW is caught in an endless spiral of reinventing what we already have, as opposed to creating new paradigms and solving new problems. Sorry to get all Andy Rooney here, but I’m tired of how companies like Facebook sucker us in with their shiny toys and are lauded for it. I only wonder how Google will eventually screw us over….and what the next SNS will be to come along and replace it.