I just wanted to try embedding a Tweet for shits and giggles. Nothing else exciting in this post.
New embed feature on Twitter is the reincarnation of the Blackbird Pie WordPress Plugin: wordpress.org/extend/plugins…
— Zack Zaban (@zackzaban) December 10, 2011
I was fortunate to get an invite to Google Plus this past week. Although the feature set seems pretty awesome, I’m intrigued to see how the mass audience of Internet users actually adapt to this “social network” (I don’t know if I consider it to be this or not, but I’ll get to that later) or if it will be another Wave/Buzz snafu.
I had a hunch that Google was up to something earlier in the week (before the Plus announcement) when I went on Google and found that the top navigation bar used a new dark grey color set w/a dark rusty orange highlight. Yeah, it was a minor change, but the shift was a visual avenue that Google really has not used in the past. Then, when I was using my Android phone’s web browser, I found that the UI taskbar had unexpectedly changed and, then later in the night, saw that YouTube’s interface had the dark grey color scheme applied to its video controls.
Needless to say, Google is making an overhaul of all of their products piece by piece throughout this week. I’m questioning Google’s execution. Are users going to soak in all of these changes and take them in like a plant that needs water, or will all of the introductions, as a whole, overflow the how users interact with Google? In other words, will people not understand how to use the new feature sets because there quite a few changes spread out through multiple Google properties.
Changes to Google Maps
Just this afternoon, I went into Google Maps and found that the site had introduced a browsing history allowing searchers to view the most recent locations that they’ve viewed in the past few days. Although small, this new feature is something that I’ve been craving for a long time. Additionally, some changes are not good. The content within my Google Calendar is now hidden behind “+1 more event” or +2 more events” reminders because the UI has widened out. As someone who relies on Google Calendars for close to all event scheduling (my college calendars looked as if someone had puked a rainbow onto my screen because I had multiple color coated calendars), I saw this as a turn in the wrong direction. If you’re going to change the look, don’t diminish the functionality.
But now to the big stuff: Google Plus. When I first signed up, I was weary of Google Plus because it seemed like a legitimate copy of Facebook and Twitter. But over the past few days, I’ve found that the biggest strength of Google Plus is the notification area in the top-right corner of the Google bar on many (but not all – Google, why would you not put this in Google Calendars?????). It’s been nice to get notifications when I’m on Gmail or conducting a search on the Google homepage. The notifications are unobtrusive, which is very nice. Additionally, the little rust orange box has popped its way into mobile: both on the Android Google homepage and in app form for Android. I cannot speak about the features like Huddle because, frankly, I don’t have my best friends to “huddle” with. In theory, this would be a great tool. But I feel like the mass audience of consumers that enjoy good old pen and paper communication would find this overly frustrating as opposed to a group message on Facebook or simply doing a three way call on their cell phones.
And there are aspects of the site that flat out bug me. First of all, when you go to the Circles page where you can add users to your friend groups, Google Plus will show all contacts from your Gmail account regardless of if they are a Google Plus user or not. It took me a little time to realize that these individuals are noted by a small mailbox icon over their image. Google says that these are contacts that can only receive information by “sharing through email.” I’m sorry, but our inboxes are cluttered with enough crap, so why introduce even more messaging into a overfilled space? Also, I cannot feed information from my Twitter into my Plus feed. There needs to be API development rolled out which gives users of both platforms the ability to share information between the two different social networks. I mean, you can do can already do this between Facebook and Twitter as well as Twitter and LinkedIn, so Google Plus should follow in the footsteps of others. I believe that if Google sees their product as the “end all be all” of social media, then they are heading down the road of Wave and Buzz – aka failure.
As I said before, I don’t know if I would classify Google Plus as a social network. Social media – yes. But the site lacks the “networking” aspect of reaching out to individuals who are not your immediate contacts. The flow of information, unless you opt for the share to public option, will only extend to 3 degrees of separation, meaning your friend’s friends (and that’s if you decide to push information out to your “extended circles.”). This isn’t a network. Twitter’s infrastructure actually promotes information flow between the initial node publisher and other nodes that can be multiple degrees of separation away (ie: retweeting someone who retweeted a newsource who tweeted about an individual … I’ve seen this happen before). So I’d actually say that it’s more of a social platform than a network.
Oh Google, you never cease to amaze me.
If you graduated this weekend and did not have a single anxious thought about leaving UW-Madison, you probably:
The emotions on campus this past week have been, for lack of a better word, interesting. Many of my friends on campus have talked about their fears of the future, their sadness of leaving best friends and the general mentality that we simply won’t be college students anymore.
I’m essentially an emotional robot on the outside and cannot cry. Do I wish I could cry – yes. Have I tried to cry – yes. Will I cry within the next two weeks – most likely not, but there’s a chance that it might happen.
Instead, my mind is in a weird state of transition that’s filled with a weird sense of optimism towards the future. I figured that instead of telling people when they’re crying, I’d blog about it.
My mentality: yeah, graduating sucks and is painful.
Last night, I had a run-in with a road cone at someone’s apartment (practical joke that ended up with me having a bloody nose… mom, if you’re reading this, I’m fine and you don’t need to have a panic attack.) Right now, I’m still in pain. Getting hit in the face sent a weird shock through my body and I couldn’t really think straight at the time because I thought that I had a broken nose.
Now, I’m a little swollen and bruised up, but I know that in a few days I’ll be fine and life will go on.
Graduating, in my opinion, is like a blow to your face, but it’s so much deeper. Most seniors have rooted themselves in something on campus – whether that entity is research, leadership within a student organization, being an athlete or volunteering out in the community – only to find their best friends. When you realize that those friends won’t be a two minute walk away, that’s when it hits you: oh fuck, I’m graduating and life won’t be the same. I mean – I’ve made friends this semester who have literally changed my life and I don’t know what I’ll do when I’m not in the same town as them (yes, you probably know who you are when you read that last statement).
Now I’m not talking about the friends that you see on the street and wave to while walking to class. I’m writing about those individuals to whom you can confide in; the people who’s happiness and joy reflects through your own actions; the people who don’t have the time to talk about your pressing issues but instead will MAKE time to speak with you; the friends who are your other half (yes, these people do exist and I’m not trying to be cliché.)
If I had an answer to solving the mess of leaving these friends, you’d probably know it as well and thus wouldn’t give two cents about this post. But I’ve had the chance to speak with people older than myself who shared some words of advice – I think these words continually give me the ability to not stress about the present but look forward to the future (and maybe I’m full of bullshit and will be a depressed wreck in two weeks; for right now, I’m doing fine).
My current boss at Hillel told me a few words that really shaped everything into perspective: “you’ll stay in contact and be best friends with the people who really matter to you.”
This put me into a spiral of thinking. I’ve thought, then pondered, then wondered and questioned, etc. etc about this concept. And you know what – I think it’s true. Just think about all of the people that you’ve encountered in college – you tend to gravitate and communicate with the people who become your good friends. If you communicated frequently with every person you’ve met in a class or student organization, you literally wouldn’t be able to have friends with whom you share deep emotional bonds with.
And I’ve come to a conclusion: we live in an age where communicating and staying in touch is easy. Holding on to those emotional threads that we share with our best friends – sharing the quick conversations about our days and the highs/lows of our dedication to leadership and work – they don’t have to end. We have the digital tools and technologies that make conversations and interactions almost (I’m saying almost because there will never be something quite like a deep dug or a shoulder to cry on) similar to interaction in the physical world.
Just think about it: we have (and let the list begin)
I’m 97.68% positive that I’ve missed something in this list. Hopefully, you understand the point I’m trying to convey.
And also, you can coordinate weekends to meet up with people who live in other areas of the country. I’ve seen this with people like my brother and his friends. They’re all busy (he’s in med school, two of his other friends are in law school, his other best friend travels to and from Haiti, yada yada yada) but manage to coordinate times to meetup and have a good time. Those weekends seem to be the force that reignites their friendships, but the moments of small conversation drive their emotional connections. (editor’s note: if Southwest airlines is reading this, the company should hire me as a spokesperson and give me free travel across the country to talk about their services… I tried and now digress…)
If you’ve read to this point of the blog, you obviously are a graduating senior and actually care what I’m talking about. Maybe I’m full of it and don’t know anything about the future – I don’t know. I guess the point I want to get across is that although graduating sucks, we’ll still maintain (and hopefully further develop) the relationships and friendships that have bloomed over the last 4 years. Yes, I’m going to drink the cliché Kool Aid right now and say it: once Badgers, always Badgers.
That’s all folks. Thanks for a great 8 semesters and giving me the chance to figure out my true passions in life.
PS- my nose still hurts.
