Social Networking: Co-Existing with Google+

It wasn’t more than a few years ago that I found myself sitting at home in front of my laptop ruling out reasons why I shouldn’t make the switch from MySpace to Facebook.  After all, both social networks were structured with the same concept other than the fact that Facebook didn’t look as “ghetto” as MySpace.  I can remember logging onto MySpace pages to leave a comment only to find that a person’s background and added YouTube bullshit slowed my computer down—A LOT.  Shortly thereafter, I found myself with less desire to go to anyone’s MySpace page because of the hassle it would take post a simple comment.  I’d make more of a point to start networking on Facebook because there was simplicity about the website that made the experience richer for me sans YouTube videos and customizable backgrounds.

It seems that this sentiment is returning and I’m feeling a bit stagnant on Facebook.  I’ve noticed that the experience on Facebook is reminiscent of the MySpace days.  With the ability to block particular apps and games, I still find myself logging in everyday to a superabundance of notifications that have to do with “Event Invites”, “Game Invites” and “App Invites”.  Believe me when I tell you that I have done everything in my power to eliminate the noise of the notifications, but I can’t seem to keep up.  There’s a new one every day and I’m just tired of having to manage everything instead of networking with people.

I could sit here and write a litany of excuses why Facebook is falling by the wayside with MySpace, but I’m sure you’ll be able to notice in the next year--unless the social network (Facebook) figures out a way to cure Cancer.   This is part of the reason why I will gradually move my efforts to my Google+ page. 

Some have told me that making such a move is “social media suicide” and that I won’t survive on the social network more than a week.  Honestly, I somewhat agree with them, but I wouldn’t say that I’m making a full transition to Google+ expecting to have the same numbers that I have on my Facebook page.  And quite honestly, what’s the harm in joining the social network when it does the same thing that Facebook does other than promote the garbage that I see in my daily FB notifications?  After playing around with the desktop version, I was able to “Hangout” with a few of my friends (face to face, mind you), share YouTube videos while being in a video “Hangout”, collaboratively work on documents together with friends and co-workers.  Basically, I’m doing everything like I do on Facebook, but finding the experience richer when I interact with people.

Think of this way:

If you like Facebook, you’ll really enjoy Google+ because it’s performing the same functions.  Perhaps you’re not a huge fan of Facebook and like Twitter—a lot of the similar functions (the @ symbol, hash tags, photos, links, etc.) are included like 140 character network.  I mean, why wouldn’t you want to join a network where all you had to do was go to one website and have all of the same? 

Perhaps it’s because of the hassle of migrating over to another social network and learning the “ins and outs” of navigation.  I’ll admit, it took me a bit to get a handle on Google+, but that’s not to say that I didn’t have the same learning curve as I did with MySpace or Facebook.

OK, I’m not here to hard sell you on Google+ because I like it, but next time you login to Facebook you might find yourself with more clutter than what it’s worth.  Clutter that certainly isn’t present on Google+ and functionality that is a little friendlier when it comes to their desktop version.  Oh, and if you’re frustrated with that Facebook app from loading your timeline, you won’t find that with the G+ app.

So, hate all you want on my decision to make [another] transition, but at the end of the day, you might find yourself saying, “Why didn’t I do this before?” when you finally join.

To find my Google+ page, click on the Google logo: