This summer Google launched Google+, a new social networking system positioned as a rival to Facebook. But unlike Google, the rest of us don’t need a Facebook rival. We don’t even need another social network. And here’s why…
1. There’s Nothing New To The New Google+
Google+ is an alternative to Facebook much like hazelnuts are an alternative to filberts—they’re the exact same thing only with a different name. Just like Facebook’s friend lists, Google+ lets you share information with a specific group of people. Just like Facebook’s news feed, Google+ lets users see updates from their friends. And just like Facebook’s photo albums, you will be inundated with 147,000 picture of cats…by tomorrow.
2. You Have Enough Accounts To Check
You already have email, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, Wordpress, Blogger, Flickr, Foursquare, and that Myspace account you forgot to delete five years ago and now just features increasingly despondent, desperately lonely photos of Tom Anderson. Do really need yet another account to check to remind you that you use the exact same password for every one of your social networks, making you as vulnerable as Superman in kryptonite Speedos under a red sun?
3. Google+ “Circles” Can Make You Judgmental
Although Facebook does let you divide contacts into lists, everyone you chat with, send updates to or endure reprehensible political viewpoints from is still considered a “friend.” With Google+ Circles you are made to start defining people into categories, forcing you to decide if someone is a friend or just a mere acquaintance. Unfortunately, this approach will eventually bleed into your real life, as you start introducing people as “my work colleague only,” “a family member to whom I have no strong emotional ties to” or “someone I once said ‘hi’ to and have regretted it ever since.”
4. You Only Have So Much To Say
We all like to think that our lives are endlessly fascinating to others. But take a good hard look at your day and you’ll realize that 49% is spent wondering where the time went and another 49% is spent being angry at Netflix for increasing its rates. Add to that the fact you’re probably already sharing what does happen in the remaining 2% on Facebook and Twitter and you’ll realize that you now have three networks in which you post the exact same inspirational quotes and realizations that everyone you ever dated is an idiot.
5. You Can Only Hear So Much From Others
Imagine if an acquaintance called you every five minutes to say that they’re having a super day, that it’s raining or that they just had a sandwich. Then imagine that call being interrupted by 800 more just like it. Now naturally we all want to know what is going on in our friends’ lives. But Google+ only increases the chance that soon we will know so much about our friends and family that when we finally do see them in person we’ll have nothing to say to each other but “What Google+ circle did you put me in?”
6. You Might Not Even Remember To Check Google+
With so much life revolving around Facebook and Twitter—not to mention texting—will it even occur to you to check up on another social network on a daily basis? Or will weeks go by before you remember to log on, only to discover that everyone else also forgot they had a Google+ account with the exception of one person whose every single update simply reads “Hello?”
7. This Could All Lead To A Google+ Movie
“The Social Network” made for a fascinating film not because it was about Facebook but because it was about how a social revolution was born out of social alienation. But a Google+ movie would be about how several executives sat around a table and said, “Well, Google Wave didn’t take off. And no one is really buzzing about Google Buzz. And the less said about Google Orkut the better. So why don’t we just do Facebook but with a black bar instead of a blue one on top?” Then the movie ends with an exciting nod of everyone’s head.
8. It Could Possibly Replace Facebook
Just like Facebook replaced Myspace and Myspace replaced Friendster and Friendster replaced yelling out your window, so might Google+ become the successor of all such sites. Which means you’ll have to build up your social networks all over again. And do you really need to go through that agony once more? Best to just stick with Facebook until it’s only you and Mark Zuckerberg posting increasingly despondent, desperately lonely photos of himself.
Have you checked Google+ yet? Could anything ever replace Facebook? Let us know what you think in the comments?
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