Ok, so recently being the Social Media Whore that I am, I finally decided to accept my Google+ invitation. Apparently I was flagged by Google as a superuser or in layman’s terms – the type of social media whore that “will love you long time!” The first invitation reached me just over a month ago and like a typical skittish intraweb socialite I required some more wooing. And wooed me they did. After being somewhat harassed I finally decided to check it out. And now I find myself in a social media ménage à trios, which led me to ask will Facebook, Twitter and Google+ make for good bedfellows.
I have been in my fair share of ménage à trios’s in my life, believe it or not. Some good and other’s not so much. So when the prospect of being intertwined in a social media three-way came up (so to speak) I found it quite daunting. I have spent allot of time and effort building my relationship with Facebook and I have spent the last two years trying to figure out my short -worded Twitter bird and its fail whale. So involving a third party in our cosy and comfortable little social setup was not something I took lightly. I wasn’t sure if Google+ would be a good fit and how this would affect my relationship with Facebook or Twitter.
Naturally, when I decided to check out Google+, I did so without the knowledge of Facebook and Twitter. My first rendezvous with Google+ was to be a secret one. I made sure the other two were closed in my web browser and I decided to use Google Chrome instead of Explorer to access my new potential social media lover. Feeling guilty and excited at the same time, I logged on and discovered a new social media world filled with potential. Circles, hangouts, sparks and being able to +1 websites and things I liked. Google+ was younger, prettier and its video chat application much faster and more robust than that of Facebook. Clicking and poking my way around I got the sense of being on the verge of a social media revolution and then like a lightning bolt it hit me -this could be my second chance, a chance to start over in social media!
You see, maintaining another social media presence is not something I would have been likely to consider. Maintaining my Facebook and Twitter accounts takes up enough time as it is. But with Google+ there seems to be an opportunity: An opportunity of having more control over my online presence; an opportunity of having more control over my privacy settings and more control over my social connections. Effectively, if you have been overwhelmed by your current social media accounts, have been smothered with social connection over which you have lost all control, and want to have a new beginning Google+ provides this for you. Whilst in the grips of this mental orgasm I could not help but think, is this social media whore wanting to turn all “I’m only going to be friends with people I know in real life”. Well the answer is NO.
Deep down I am an incredibly loyal person. I have spent far too much time building my Facebook fan base, cultivating followers on twitter and all this at no financial benefit to myself. So effectively this makes me more of a social media slut than a whore. I am cheap and easy and love traffic! After I have had my shag in the virtual hay with Google+, I spent a good few minutes starring at my Facebook login page. Feeling a little bit dirty and ashamed I did not want to enter. What if Facebook knew? What if my Facebook friends saw me? So I did the only thing I could think off. I status updated my indiscretion.
Will I be cheating on my Facebook friends with Google+? That is was how I choose to confess. It was a good ten minutes before anyone responded. I was nervous. Then the first whimper of a reaction, first one person liked the update, and then two more. I was confused. Was it OK? Didn’t they mind? Then the answer came - a flurry of requests by my friends to invite them to Google+. It seemed there were many folks out there wanting to try something new. Maybe they were just curious or maybe there are some people genuinely wanting to start afresh. Once you hit your Facebook friend limit of 5000 and start missing important status updates from your close friends, this tends to happen. If you have spent a whole Saturday going through your friend list deleting people you don’t know, never interact with and by the time you get to the P’s in your social alphabet it’s 8pm already you will understand.
Before any of my Facebook friends freak out – NO I WILL NOT BE LEAVING FACEBOOK! However, I have joined Google+ and I am going to give it a try. It’s like opening a brand spanking new book with all its pages blank, ready for me to write a new chapter. This social media slut’s ménage à trios is going to be my own little experiment. Which one of the three will prevail, who knows but I plan on having fun finding out.
Till next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment