Creation, Consumption and Comment

Activity on the internet can be broadly divided into three categories: content creation, content consumption, and comment. All three are worthwhile, but finding a good balance is a challenge.

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve checked in with Google+ and LinkedIn — two more social networks to keep track of on top of Facebook and Twitter. LinkedIn seems like it should be pretty easy to keep track of — in that I probably just won’t. Thus far, I don’t really see the point, and haven’t been very impressed by the interface. Certainly not impressed enough to spend any time there.

The addition of Google+ has so far only demanded one or two quick peeks a day, considering its lack of population. As it grows, it could eventually turn into a Facebook scale time-sink, but not for now.

And so we all seem to drift around the web reading, watching and sharing. As social networking continues to grow, we spend more and more time on sharing. Sharing, and consuming whatever has been shared with us. Returning to the initial notion of activity split between creation, consumption and content, what becomes of creation?

After all, what good is all of this consumption of media if not to inspire the creation of new media? That, at least, is my hope/excuse. It can be very easy to get stuck just browsing, though. Are Facebook and Google+ more than just traps? Engines for sharing, yes, but if you never break free from that echo-chamber to make something, it isn’t worth it.

So here’s to creating — something, anything. Just creating.

Google+

After following along with a couple weeks of chatter over Twitter, I’ve finally gotten into the Google+ beta. As a service, I think I like it. Combining the best of Facebook and Twitter into one feed, Google+ offers a sense of being in control right away.

The one thing Google+ is missing so far is a population. Over the last couple of years, it seems like just about everyone I’ve ever known has taken the plunge into Facebook. They might not all use it on a regular basis, but they are on there. It has been interesting to observe Facebook’s growth into a place where you can catch little snippets of life from half-forgotten friends. For a little while, it seemed like it might have been on track to become a permanent fixture of the rest of our digital lives. Now, maybe not.

The enthusiasm with which the internet appears to have welcomed Google’s latest shot at social bears out a slow-boiling frustration with Facebook’s perpetual erosion of privacy, tendency to hide away controls in obscure locations, and most recently the surprisingly irksome ‘Try it now’ chat pop-up. Is it really true that everyone has just been waiting for a legitimate heir to the throne? Last month’s stories of millions of people leaving Facebook do seem to indicate that global patience has been wearing thin. And that exodus predates the launch of Google+. What will happen when the invite-only barrier is lifted? Are Facebook’s days really numbered?

I really can’t make up my mind. I can’t even decide if I want Facebook to go, yet. My great worry is that a substantial chunk of my friends list won’t make the jump to another platform. With so many people participating in social media only grudgingly to begin with, how hard is it going to be to convince them to go through the hassle of rebuilding across the street? And is this going to be the way of things forever going forward? Every couple of years people will get tired of/fed up with their current online home, start pining for something new, and leave? Or is this the switch from hotmail to gmail? In that case, Google managed to create a clearly superior option, and I haven’t had any cause to look for an alternative in years. At this point, I’m pretty sure gmail will be my email provider for as long as I’m using email.

Here’s hoping Google has done it again. For the time being, I’ll certainly keep using both Facebook and Google+. Most of my friends on Facebook probably won’t be making the jump any time soon, and I’m not willing to leave that network behind. Twitter, on the other hand, might have some cause to worry. A much greater proportion of the people I’m interested in following online are already on Google+, and as Gary Whitta recently pointed out, features like attached commenting make it a much stronger platform.

A year from now, I’d guess I’ll still be using Facebook and Google+, but Twitter might have some cause to worry….