It seems that these days people are actively packing up their facebook account over to google+. Different reasons aside, google+ is making a huge splash in the social scene.

One thing that I have noticed is from my personal experience, of how I deal with my online social interaction.

I have always used my on social verbs based on the actual social interaction I perform with these people.. on twitter and google.

• Connect
• Converse
• Learn
• Read
• Inspire

and other sub circles/groups for specific topics such as #ux and location specific. To me, this makes much more sense, especially that I use these social tools to share and to receive information.

I have always found the default social verbs to be awkward…

Follow

when someone follows you on twitter, you don’t necessary have to follow back. The word “follow” does not commit to such deep relationships. What if the social verb on twitter were to be.. “subscribe”? But either way, twitter connections are pretty casual either way. It’s like asking a girl for her phone number in a bar.

Friend

Don’t you think it’s a bit too much of a commitment to want to be someone’s friend? That’s a very loosely defined term for “friend” don’t you think? This kind of social attitude reminds me of the girl who wants to talk about marriage right on the first date.

Add to Circle

I find my social mood to be lightened with Google+. I don’t feel like I have to commit to someone when I add someone to circle. It’s so refreshing to be added and not befriended. I also don’t feel pressured to add people back if I don’t want to. (because ignoring someone’s friend request seems quite like a gesture of rejection.) This reminds me of real life social interaction of “here’s my card, give me a call sometime.”

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