It’s not a secret in the least that I generally can’t stand following the crowd like a mindless lemming.  So it’s no real surprise that I ended up loathing MySpace when it had it’s day.  It was like a clone war of hideous layouts.  Sure your screaming pink and green with purple text is colorful, but damn near impossible to read and still, the layout of content is identical to everyone else.  Not to mention the horrific amount of embeds that would make even the fastest internet connection groan.  The competition to see who had the most “friends”.  Does anyone really know these people?  Probably not, and apparently my definition of a friend certainly differs from other people, if all you have to do is accept a friend request from a stranger you’ve never met or gotten to even genuinely talk too.  I tried it for about a week before I couldn’t take the stomach pains of how god awful it was.

Then came Facebook.  It grew in popularity overnight it seemed but I still was skeptical of it.  It has generally the same basic principals as MySpace, though it certainly looked better.  But…. It looked so cookie cutter the same from profile to profile.  No color changes, no real customizations to give any user individuality.  Other than it seemed to be the “in thing”.  As people around me who had Facebook profiles, started having attitudes that would make others who didn’t have Facebook feel as if they were somehow a lesser grade of person.  “You don’t have Facebook?!?!?”, and then turn away as if the non-Facebook person had Leprosy or something.  Again, I tried it for about a week before wanting to commit bodily harm to the creator to have zombified the general public.  Good thing I can create and delete all the email addresses I like, or I would’ve never been released from the Facebook clutch.  As a technological geek, I can’t figure out how it got so popular.  The hundreds of people I meet can’t figure out how to do simple things with their computers, but they figured out how to operate Facebook.  Though it is a belief of mine, it’s how interested in what you are doing that makes the difference.  Loads of people apparently don’t care how to operate their computers, they just want them to work without having to take the effort to learn.  God forbid they take that attitude about driving…  Oh wait…  They do…  But that’s a different rant for a different day.

Then flew in Twitter.  One hundred forty characters to tell the world… “What are you doing now?”.  It’s amazing how much information people will try to divulge in so few characters.  Even more amazing that they think anyone would really care about the majority of the nonsense they spew, secrets they spill or what-have-you.  It certainly has helped hinder any form of proper language skills.  It’s hard to write how good or bad your day was in such a short space.  Good thing I have no limits here   Though, I shot the bird and moved on again back to my blog.

Now here comes Google Plus (Google+).  Well…  I tried it.  It’s been 3 weeks now.  I haven’t hated it.  Though, again everyone’s profile looks the same.  The layout isn’t god awful, it’s actually quite brilliant.  Stupidly easy to learn and already utilizes the tools I’m using anyways.  Such as Gmail and Picasa (web version).  I don’t have to have 3000 friends, I actually have a Circle listed as “No Idea”.  With only my real friends listed in “Friends”, and I have circles for “Famous people I’d like to meet” and “People I’d like to meet” for folks whose profiles interest me.

Granted, I know I don’t use it as it was intended.  I don’t blog there.  It does allow me to post my blogs there via links   This makes me happy.  Maybe, just maybe, I’ll make more genuine friends this way.  Maybe not, but it’s certainly the first social network that doesn’t suck as far as I can see.  Then again, I’m obviously no Social Network guru or junkie like most.  I’m OK with that.   And Google Plus is OK with me.