Google Plus’ Secret Success
The primary draw of Google Plus (other than Google fanboys geeking out or the anti-Facebook crowd having a place to congregate) was the “circle” concept. One of the big complaints of many social media, especially Facebook, is that we don’t always see the content we want to. Radical political posts from that one aunt you never see, friends from high school bragging about their illegal drug usage, or the never ending source of cringe that is a senior citizen’s Facebook statuses.
Google Plus’ answer to this was Circles. You create groups of people out of all your friends, like a co-workers group, your intramural team, or family. When you want to shout out “Does anyone want to play a pick up game?”, you don’t have to have everyone hearing it, just the group that may be interested. Many people view the “ends” of social media when your parents or grandparents get on the platform. Many people I’ve talk to ‘hold back’ on certain social media platforms because they know a family member or co-worker may see their post. It’s not even necessarily for talking behind people’s back. I would post many ＤＡＮＫ ＭＥＭＥＳ on my Facebook wall if I didn’t have to explain them to my mom. Circles solved this issue by giving you a place to show the different “self” you present to the different people you interact with.
Back then, though, Facebook and Twitter were the name of the game. Now, with so many social networks that many people use, there has been a more organic “circle” made by users of specific social media platforms, rather than a user made artificial “circle” created on Google Plus.
Take me for example. I’m not too much of a “social media” person, but I use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit, and Tumblr, along with messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, GroupMe, Telgram, Discord, Skype, and, ya know, email. I’m gonna use all those different services for different purposes. I have a different audience of friends of each platform, so I cater my content appropriately. If I have a cute picture of my dog, I’ll put that everywhere. If I eat at a cool restaurant, maybe on my Snapchat story or an Instagram post. If I create the next hot ＤＡＮＫ ＭＥＭＥ, then I’ll post that on Reddit or Tumblr. I don’t have to carefully manage who is in what group, I just post things on the platform I feel it is most appropriate for, and only add those people who may want to see my content.
So, although Google Plus may forever be laughed at in social media infamy, some of its core values live on in this radically shifting world of social networks. You don’t have to share everything with everyone, just what you want with who you want.
