I was really excited about Google Plus when I first saw the tour. I asked around, signed on beta lists, anything for an invite. Of course I got it, everyone got an invitation. :P

On my first week there I had 2 incredible hangouts, meeting some really great people that suddenly made G+ my preferred social network. (My previous one was Twitter, which had tired me a bit because of my incredibly disorganized timeline.)

There was so much interaction for a good part of that first month, something that was missing on Twitter, and now missing on G+ as well.

What I’ve come to realise is, it’s not any social network’s fault. We are all a bit selfish to a degree, and those sites seem to bring that out. We want OUR opininon to be heard. The comments on our posts are just stroking our ego, ‘These people agree with me, they find me interesting.’

Looking at my stream there now, the majority of the posts are funny GIFs and funny images in general. I have FailBlog for these things, and the recent lack of interaction has been boring me.

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What put the nail in the coffin, was the ‘Real Name Policy’.

I don’t have a problem with using my real name on very specific social networks. Facebook is a place for my old schoolmates and friends to find me, since I tend to dissappear. G+ looked like a Facebook substitute at first, so I was alright with using my name there too.

I don’t want every opinion and belief of mine to be associated with my real name, though. I’m secretive, and there are things my family and many of my friends don’t know that I really want to keep to myself.

You’d say, this is why there are circles on G+. Point taken, I didn’t mind using my real name on G+. I just wanted some leniency shown to the people that chose not to. They have legitimate reasons, and Google has been very abrupt towards them.

If you want to learn more about the ‘Name Wars’ and Google’s stance, read this: http://arianeb.wordpress.com/2011/09/08/how-google-plus-became-uncool/

A friend from one of those awesome hangouts, a great person with serious reasons not to use his legal name, had his profile disabled. Up until then, I’m ashamed to admit I didn’t let myself think too much about the policy.

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And that’s when the whole G+ situation started feeling too serious. There’s the opinion it’s not a social network, but rather a part of Google’s online experience. Info for advertising, that kind of stuff. These theories are often far-fetched, but you have to admit Google is freakin’ everywhere now. 

Think of how many Google products you’re using, Gmail, maybe an Android phone, Google Docs… Maybe the folks that are trying to use as many non-Google alternatives as possible have a point…

So here I am. Announced to my +ers I’m deleting my profile within the week, and moving here for my ‘too-long-for-Twitter’ posts. This is going to be boring, most likely journal-like. I’m doing this for myself, to avoid the self-esteem rollercoaster social networks usually are for me.

I’m back. Hopefully, I’m here to stay. Hello, tumblr! :)