My main frustration with Twitter, Facebook and now Google+ is that my feeds/streams become clogged with irrelevant (to me) twaddle. I had hoped with the potential of Google+ to easily pigeonhole people into multiple circles that some more thoughtful sharing of messages might occur.
I have circles for Android, Australians, Family, Friends, Education, Genealogy, Libraries and Strangers. I am so pleased that I have been able to connect with a number of genealogists that I have met online and know by reputation. These people I just pop into the genealogy circle and try to post into their streams only things that can be related to genealogy. Other genealogists with whom I have a more personal relationship I have also added to my friends circle so they can hear my news of new babies, great meals, frustrations with my elderly mother and weather reports. I do not share Android news with all genealogists, many of whom are Mac disciples, as I am not into conversion but collaboration with folk with a shared interest.
Google+ allows us to share but it also gives us the ability to share judiciously and easily. I am concerned that as Google+ grows its potential for real collaboration will suffer because people are not thinking before they post.
Whether we are writing fiction, a blog post, a science report or a news article one of the first things we must do before putting pen to paper is to identify and think about our audience. If we apply that to our use of Google+ we will have a powerful tool.
Now it's time to turn my attention to my Mum
:-))
I have had to block posts from some of my Facebook 'friends' (distant relatives are the worst culprits - my genealogy friends are better behaved!) because I do not want to see material that is totally irrelevant to me or which contains language that makes me uncomfortable (or both). If only Facebook users would set up Friends Lists and use them properly, I would log on to Facebook more frequently.
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