I posted the other day about my first short impressions of Google+ - and then I dove into the deep end, spending the majority of my online social media time on that site instead of the others. To be honest, I didn't fully abandon anything else. Facebook is open, Hootsuite has my Twitter feeds/searches streaming, so I'm mostly just fixing my eyeballs to G+ while still participating as I can elsewhere.
So I posted on Google+ for anyone using the service to share what they've found, pro or con. If you're on G+, click through and leave your two cents as well. Or here in the comments. Or just shout them out loud and make your dog, who's been watching you for some time thinking about needing to go out, wonder about what you're doing and who you're talking to.
But I digress.
For me, I like the concept - but I am not going to put all my eggs or anything else into this new basket. I can do most of the things in G+ on the other services to greater or lesser degrees - it's just easier here, but it also takes away from those platforms. As Mike commented on the other post, something's got to be displaced. So the base of friends and followers on Facebook and on Twitter are still there, still chatting and conversing and #vaguetweeting about all kinds of things that aren't necessarily being shared on G+. So while I like the new design, the new feel for connections and interaction, I can't shake the feeling that something is missing - even if that something is just EVERYTHING on the other sites.
And that's the rub: further separating folks in the name of bringing them together. Google has found a way to personalize our content, but it's at the expense of the serendipity and surprise that's springing up across the whole. I have read some folks falling in love with being able to find new folks in new ways across Circles and Sparks on G+, and that's good - but then when we compartmentalize these things into Circles or Lists or Groups, we lose out on the others by focusing in too narrowly on the one... it's a cycle that leads to a funnel, but funnels aren't very good conduits of very much.
I'm in on Google+ (and spreading my time and screentime resources across the others still, as well) and think it will be "the next big thing" to really move around the social platforms and the ideas about what interactions and relationships have to do with the spread of ideas, influence and culture. But I'm not sure how happy I am right now at splitting myself off into another separated, less integrated structure just for what I fear I'm missing on the other side.