Reflections on social networking

With the rise of Google+ as my preferred social network, I’ve had some opportunity to reflect on how my online interactions with my friends have changed.

Way back when I was an Internet geekling, I used email and ICQ (remember them? Uh-oh!) I ran a website, but that was mostly a playground for some very… Immature web design experimentation - also teen angst.

Eventually the website became this blog, and though I moved from ICQ to MSN, I stopped using chat a whole lot. I got on to LiveJournal, and that was a great way to stay in touch with friends. Most of my circle were on LJ, whether in Australia, or older school friends that I wanted to stay up to date with.

Then Facebook came. Some people will talk about MySpace, Friendster or Twitter, but Facebook got the formula right for me. LJ is largely a ghost town because the long form that LJ encourages is comparatively a lot more work. Add to that a virtually nonexistent mobile platform and you’ve got a recipe for untended journals and silent Friend pages.

I’ll admit my own guilt. I can’t remember the last time I wrote an LJ post. I was addicted to Facebook, checking it constantly. That’s mostly because FB was very vibrant. Everybody was on it, so conversations were always in progress, and it made communication so effortless.

But in the last year, I’ve lost the free time at work that helped sustain my addiction. Facebook’s repeatedly inept handling of privacy issues has made me reluctant to share very much through the site as well. As a result, I’ve more than halved my “Friends” list, and spend no more than a couple minutes a week glancing over it.

And now Google+ is here its been a great chance to  rethink everything about how I interact with people. Things are changing. I’m taking my time to come up with a, well ‘strategy’ is such a corporate word, but it’s apt. I need to think about status updates, photos, blog posts, publishing, walking the public/private line and more. Time for that in another post.