Blonde Productions Group

As I log into my Gmail each morning, I see the little “+Kirsten” at the top left of the screen. I sometimes absentmindedly click on the link, taking me to my Google+ account. The blank page stares back at me with the single stretch of text:

Nothing shared here so far. Try adding more people to your circles.

It’s not disappointing to see I have no new posts or messages; after all, I don’t even have a photo but simply the default silhouette of a large-headed figure at the top of the screen. (Almost ominous looking, don’t you think?) It doesn’t bother me that my Google+ profile shows nothing but four friends and suggestions for how to get started, because despite the new social networking site being invite-only at this point, I’m sticking to my guns that this will not ever become “the new Facebook”.

Honestly, it’s not that I adore Facebook. It definitely has its faults. The problem is I really don’t have enough energy to become addicted to a new social networking site. Porting over all the interests, photos, videos and friends to accurately portray my virtual self is more than I want to deal with, and I’m hoping others are as lazy as me.

Despite my hope that Facebook is here to stay, evidence shows otherwise. We all remember Myspace. I checked my account about a year ago, and the site was a ghost town. The remains of online friendships were decaying on my wall - posts dated from years ago next to more silhouetted photos (as my Myspace friends have all abandoned their profiles as well.) That was a year ago, and I suppose my profile will now forever be frozen in time, as I have since forgotten both my login email address and password.

Aside from the notion that there will always be a better social networking site, (history repeated itself when Friendster lost to Myspace which lost to Facebook), all the proof I don’t want that Google+ will eventually takeover is that our social media expert Danielle Yuthas is adamant it will.

Yuthas strongly believes Facebook will be trumped by Google+. “Being able to control what you broadcast to whom is a niche that social media has needed to fill for a long time,” Yuthas said, and it seems that Google+ has done just that. According to Yuthas, the true beauty is that you have the ability to divide people into groups known as “circles” but they do not know which circle they are in. For example, it is not explicitly disclosed to your mom that she is seeing a different status update from you than your bff receives.

It’s true, privacy may be the most important thing when it comes to essentially bearing it all online for the world to see. As Nancy Clark has said, “What happens in Vegas stays on Facebook.” It’s the same for any social networking site where you publicly post photos and conversations. The “circles” in Google+, however, keep things more controlled. Facebook has a similar feature, limited profiles. However, these privacy settings are much more complicated to figure out and still don’t seem to be very effective in keeping a Vegas trip out of the office. It was a late addition to Facebook and users haven’t gotten into it.

A second feature Google+ has that fills a niche is called “Huddle.” With this, you and a group of friends can combine your separate conversations into one group chat. So now, trying to decide on Friday night plans with ten different people is more efficient.

Google+ also integrates with Google’s photo-sharing platform Picasa so you can share albums with individuals. On Facebook, users tend to choose the best pictures to post for all to see but there isn’t exactly a good way to send individuals particular pictures you don’t want out in public.

So yeah, maybe Yuthas is right. Maybe Google+ will someday dominate. It seems that at least a few of their features are needed in the social networking world, and I’m sure there are people willing to harness enough energy to re-add some friends. For me, though, I’m content with sticking with what works. Even if that means I’ve got a shadowy figure as a profile image on my blank Google+ page, while posting lone statuses into an abandoned Facebook newsfeed. Only time will tell the trends that catch on.

In December when Facebook made a series of changes regarding privacy, some of us users were so private about our response that we didn’t.

Hello.

If You edited your privacy settings on Facebook before December’s change, you’re cool. In other words, you’ve got what you want.

If you didn’t, and want to change things you share, listen up:

There’s a button beneath the status update field that lets you select who can view any particular update. It says “Everyone.”

Got it?!

To go private, mouse over the settings menu at the top right of your Profile page and you will be guided through a series of processes that will make you private…ahhh, yes, you can go home again.

Remember…what happens in Vegas stays on Facebook. Get it. Got it. Change it.

Friday the 13^th has never had a good rap. In my recent experience, Sunday the 13^th is no better. That’s the day I learned—thankfully, from a dear friend—that someone had hacked my Facebook account, sending to all of my named Facebook friends a Facebook email announcement that went something like this: “I’ve downloaded sexually explicit photos of myself for you to view.” And then there was the requisite link….

The joke is on me, apparently. As recently as last week, I promoted Facebook as a business networking tool to clients. At my Boomer age, I’ve even been teased about being a part of Facebook by younger Facebook devotees. I’ve debated the virtues of Facebook with associates who refused to participate on Facebook…otherwise sophisticated Internet operators who resolutely resisted. They said they had their reasons.

Now I am a believer…not in Facebook, but in the damage internet networking can net.

For the record, I did not post explicit photos of myself for anyone to view. In fact, and this may be too much information, I don’t have explicit photos of myself to post in case the aberrant urge possessed me. As explicitly as I can possibly elicit the words: IT AIN’T SO.

Moreover, I don’t have the carbon footprint big enough to warrant anyone hacking into my Facebook account. I just do what I do…below the radar. I’m no Ashton. I’m no Britney. I’m no news.

What, was it only last week that I proclaimed to a willing listener that I felt compassion for a wife married to a golf swinger? The shock of having so much private detail consume Internet bandwidth has to be brutal on her, the unwitting victim in a drama played out on every conceivable medium.

I’ve joked privately that I have no life outside of my work. My friend that alerted me to the false Facebook invitation to link to my explicit photos laughed with me. He and I, he said, are the only two people on earth checking their emails on a Sunday from our office desks during a Broncos game. In truth, it’s not that my dear friend has no life, nor is it true that I have no life. It’s just that it’s my life and nobody else’s business.

So take that, Facebook. You’re off my radar. It may be true that if it happens in Vegas, it stays on Facebook. But if it happens in my life, it won’t be there.