My Journey in Writing, Ranting, and Woodworking

The week’s schedule was frightening, he thought as he looked at his outlook calendar.  The three major projects Thomas was working on were all past due, by several weeks, and he had to finish up the power point presentation to explain why.  Deadlines were rarely met, but it seemed to be harder to get things done than usual.  He looked at his watch and took a sip of the Starbuck Double Mocca day starter, and opened the browser.  Work would have to wait.

With years of experience creating presentations explaining technical stuff, in such a way, that stupid people (read upper management) could understand, had made him rather savvy with Photoshop CS.  He opened his folder of company photos and found one, from the Christmas part of ’07, and neither person in the shot still worked there, so he thought it would be perfect.

The next 3 hours were spent adding the Google Plus and FB logo over the two women’s faces. After cancelling his meetings for the afternoon, he got back to writing clever captions.  The projects would have to wait. This could go viral!

Such is life in corporate America for July 2011.  It will be forever known as the lost month

I’m sold on G+, no question about it.  I’ve grown tired of the partisan bickering though.  I’m not talking about Democrats and Republicans, but about Geocrats and Facebookicans.  The first couple of weeks there were lots of jokes about G+ kicking FB’s butt, and I chuckled.  It has grown boring and if I never see another animated gif with G+ beating on FB, it will be too soon.

I realize that as a species, we need to vent our anger somewhere.  Saying, ‘Serenity Now’, over and over, doesn’t work.  Life is hard and everyone has stress.  There are kids, unemployment, bad economy, reality TV, and gas prices, which make the members of OPEC blush.  We need to hate, or more accurately vent.  I tend to take out my frustrations through guest blogging.  Most of my posts have a common tone of snark and usually take an undeserved shot at Justin Beiber or Snooki.

I understand.  I really do, but the truth is, I’m sure they are both nice people.  I bet Mr. Beiber would be pleasant to talk with, over dinner, and I’m sure he would be much nicer to me, than I have been to him in the blogs.

I really don’t hate Beiber or Snooki, or even the University of michigan.  The fact, that I refuse to capitalize the state, is just me having a little fun.  I love Ohio State football, and with their recent on campus troubles, expect that the fans of Maize and Blue will have plenty of ammo to take the wind out of my sails, should I mention the recent lopsided rivalry.  When I was young, I thought I really did hate the Wolverines.  I couldn’t stand it when they beat the Buckeyes.  But then I grew up.  I learned that Bo Shembechler and Woody Hayes were best friends.  They hated to lose to the other, but it was just a game.  Life and friends are something that shouldn’t be tarnished by real hate.

So, I’m tired of all the ‘Will G+ be the DEATH of FB’, and all the giddy giggling hoping it comes to pass.

It won’t be the death of FB, because there are lots of people who like FB, not because it is a great Social Media platform, but because they enjoy using the service.  They aren’t SM gurus or early adopters or zealots.  They are just people, who like to post a picture of their kids, because they love them.  They aren’t selling anything.  The masses at FB have little concern with their Klout score, or have even heard of Klout.  They don’t use Twitter or understand why it is important and they aren’t going to give up FB, which they are comfortable with, because G+ does things slightly better.  The differences are so meaningless to non-social media enthusiasts, that it just won’t matter.

Is it possible that FB’s future earning will be less than they would, had G+ not come along?  Yes.  I would say it is likely, but who really cares.  I don’t.  Mark Zuckerberg, at 27, will still have billions and billions of dollars.  He’ll get by.

I like Twitter and G+ best, but I will use FB too.  I think people should just choose their favorite and stop the preaching and bashing.  If you are frustrated and bitter, then find an outlet and vent.  Please stop filling my stream with your SM hate mongering.  And get back to work.