Well, I Love the Google+ Party
I was going through the newspaper last Friday night when I came across a snippet on Google+ on the Daily Nation’s Zuqka. “Can You Quit G+?” It read. I was obviously concerned as anybody who knows me knows I am the weird Google+ crusader. I read on…
“Google has become sadistic in retaining Google Plus users by threatening to delete all your Google Data at quitting point.” When and where did this happen? I asked myself.
Later on the same night I stumbled upon an article on Mashable. It was titled “Sorry, Google+, We Still Won’t Come to Your Party”. It went on to list reasons why Google+ was not the party you want to join.
I will tell you why that whole article was misleading.
1. Google+ is not anything like Facebook. It would beat the purpose of having it anyway. Why would you want a second Facebook? Therefore, trying to compare the two is a bit misguided. There are people who do not have Facebook accounts because it is not fun to them.
2. Gmail is now more integrated into Google+. True. Apparently, people are too busy to opt out of this feature. No one is too busy to stop something they do not like. You make time for what concerns you. Random people cannot email you if you do not want that. You can opt out here.
3. A social network is supposed to be fun. Very true. Apparently, according to the writer, we share photos of babies on Facebook because everyone is there. Okay, sounds legit. But wait a minute. Everyone was not there back in 2004. It is quite a fallacy to gauge a 10-year-old against a 3-year-old child. And by the way, you can share GIFs of your babies on Google+. So much more fun. And less mundane. Google Plusers love that “Google+ has always seemed a little too hung up on the mechanics”. That’s what makes Christmas photos sparkle. I would be very careful when using the term friend on Facebook. Most people do not even know half the people they call friends up in there.
4. Circles are not a euphemism for segregation. Ignorance is no defence. Circles are moulded around the thought process of having different interests. While Facebook is showing you the same status updates for an entire week, (now that we are comparing networks, I might as well) Google+ lets you get information on what interests you in an organized manner.
5. So what if a sizeable number of Google Plusers are only there for the Hangouts? Who uses every feature offered on Facebook? For the record, Hangouts is the last thing I normally think of when I am on Google+.
6. Lastly, Google+ started as an invites-only gig. That is how we got in. That cancels out the last paragraph where he claims that people will go to a party if there is restricted access.
Anyway, you can choose to listen to people like this and keep ignoring Google+ or you can choose to venture in and see what my hullabaloo is about. There are immense benefits in adopting social networks earlier than others, trust me. And by the way, I have been forced to parties I did not want to attend and they turned out to be awesome because things do look different from the inside, after all.
Think about it. No one is forcing you to join anything, the Facebook evangelists just want you to think so. Meanwhile, my buds and I are partying on Google+.
By the way, you can upload GIFs to Facebook through this Giphy site here. 🙂 (Photo credit: Giphy) |