It’s not actually the first day, but I’ll call it that since it’s the first day I started adding people to follow and inviting people to follow me, so in a sense it’s the first day of the social ecosystem starting.

Overall, I like it.

Let’s of people won’t see a reason to switch, which I think is perfectly acceptable. Here’s why I’m choosing to switch:

• UI is brilliant. Facebook’s is not. Easy choice there.
• Tighter integration with gmail, which is the primary web-based email that I use.
• Asymmetrical ecosystem (I’ll get into that later – it’s important)
• More control over who sees what, where, and how.
• Simple. No Farmville, no ridiculous quizzes etc.
• A chance to start over.

Really, that sums it up. I’ll lose some things from Facebook, but they were on their way down anyway, so the loss isn’t too bad if thought of rationally. This sort of ties in with the starting over point there; Facebook first started when I was in high school, so most of it is the shattered remains of my high school friends who have either left, like me, to pursue higher education or are the sorts of people who I sort of knew, but weren’t really friends with. Starting over, oddly, is different than weeding out the remains (which I do frequently and without remorse).

Gmail is central to me since I feed my other accounts into it’s inbox which can handily be checked from any browser or ipad app or whatever. Was it annoying with Facebook and Gmail being separate? Not really. The only difference now is I can see any G+ notifications while browsing my email.

Asymmetry. That’s the big one. Let me explain:

Twitter is asymmetrical. Facebook is not. In Facebook, you have to befriend people, which means both of you have to decide that you want to see each other’s stuff equally. If one of you isn’t interested, the whole deal is off, which makes for an awkward predicament: as a creative, I like my work to be seen. I make it and lovingly post it so that it can be seen. I love comments and critiques. But! I don’t love friending everyone and their grandmother so they can likewise see me and my work. This is where Twitter is good – people can follow me, I’m not obligated the opposite. I can follow other superstar designers and they don’t have to deal with my antics. It works out for everyone.

That’s why, in a nutshell, I prefer G+ over Facebook.

I can post, people can listen. People can comment and +1 it and it’s all good. In return, I’ll probably start following them too, because they’re probably sweet people with a lot of class and excellent fashion sense. And, it’s not awkward because we don’t even have to be friends. We can just mutually follow and like Twitter, doesn’t imply anything it really isn’t.

This reason, though, is why a lot of people won’t leave Facebook. They don’t care. They don’t mind being symmetrical since the friends they follow are usually the ones following them and so it makes sense to stay on FB and business as usual. And why should they leave? They have friends, the friends have them, everyone is happy.

And so that’s why I don’t think Google+ will crumble Facebook. It’s got a largely happy userbase and the people who are looking for something else will use Google+ or Twitter.

The problem is that the balance is upset slightly. You know how they say 5% make the content the other 95% enjoys? Well, what happens when that 5% (the others like me) leaves because of Google+’s superior sharing system?

Well, that’ll be the interesting part to watch.

For the time being, I’m just enjoying not having anyone ask me to plant fake corn or catch their runaway virtual pig.

If you’re also on Google+, you should definitely be following me – it’ll make your life better in every way imaginable; your jokes will be funnier and members of the opposite sex will like you more. FACT.

Look! More awesome posts:

1. Google Glass
2. Push Pop Press + Facebook = UI overhaul?
3. Acrylo Evaluation