One of the greatest, and potentially harmful, functionalities of Google Plus is Circles. I know firsthand what’s it’s like to lose a virtual friend because we only share 25% common interests or less. Twitter has always been more suited for topical friendships than Facebook, but you still find yourself limited by the firehose of other things people want or don’t want to talk about.
Enter Google+ Circles
Google+ is the first major social networking platform to solve this. With Circles, you can arrange friends into topical circles. Feel free to browse my Google+ Circles here. I’ve broken people down into groups, so that I can talk with them on things that match our common interests. The one exception would be Close Friends (or my future Men’s Group), in which I might share more private things that don’t make it into any other group.
Convenient or Crippling? Yes.
Circles is amazing. It allows me to avoid annoying people who only follow me because of my thoughts on digital marketing. Believe it or not, I’ve had more controversy over sharing sports than faith. And that’s what motivated this post.
What we gain in convenience and usability, we lose in character and relational skills. If I can limit you to only the posts you are interested in or agree with, we never really know each other. We may never get the opportunity to grow through disagreement or controversy. Granted, not all SEOs think the same way, so I can have plenty of controversy within that one circle. But what about expanding our horizons through actual relationship?
Hold On There, Partner. That’s What REAL People Are For.
Maybe that’s your reaction. Maybe we shouldn’t care about the limitations because we have real face-to-face relationships to provide all the controversy and discomfort one could ever need. Maybe asking for more from an online social network is asking too much.
What do you think? Are we better off for segmenting what we say to who? Or do we just become more skilled at PR, passing the right messages to the right groups at the right times?
Is Google+ an extension of real relationship? Or is it merely a tool for gathering information and building our influence?
I think it does reflect real life. In real life, there are things I would say to my family that I wouldn’t say to a group of professionals. And vice-versa. Makes sense to me.
Sigh. Perhaps you’re right, Donna. Wouldn’t be the first time.
There are most definitely things I will say to some and not to others. Perhaps I’m thinking idealistically, wondering how we’ll ever know whether we like someone more fully if they’re always only in this or that circle. At least with face-to-face, I take chances on occasion to talk about things other people might dislike or disagree with. When everyone’s siloed into unique circles, will you ever have the chance for such a growth in virtual relationship?
Daniel, I’m asking a question without researching or attempting it myself yet, but have you added people to multiple circles? Does that affect their feed with duplicate posts?
Nikki, it doesn’t duplicate posts. It’s quite common to assign people to 2, 3, or even 4 different circles. That way we’re not limited to communicating with each person on only one level.
Are we REALLY worried about social skills? Shoot. I mean, Mine were sub par to begin with. Let’s just let sleeping dogs lie. =)
Andy recently posted..Time to Cut Bait with Roddy B