On my side of the divide, deleting posts from my G+ which I don't need digitally archived anywhere. Digital detox. Time to move on. Maybe start fresh when the lab rats have sorted the teething problems?
Originally shared by Grace Monte de Ramos
Some food for thought to go with the G+ shutdown and its attendant chores -- retrieving data, keeping friends, holding on to memories...
"Then it dawned on me that one of the super powers of social media or the internet at large is that it messes with our natural coping tendency to forget. Now, there is always a way to retrieve stuff. All stuff. If you can’t, someone else can or will. Forgetting is so much harder now. Every email, notification, alert, pop-up, widget is on a race for you to remember. But our brains have not evolved to make sense of everything, of every view possible and still have balance. So we buckle and we settle or we go mad or we contemplate it and write a piece about it so that we can move on or at least feel like we can."
https://www.rappler.com/science-nature/ideas/science-solitaire/222472-forgetbook-memories
Originally shared by Grace Monte de Ramos
Some food for thought to go with the G+ shutdown and its attendant chores -- retrieving data, keeping friends, holding on to memories...
"Then it dawned on me that one of the super powers of social media or the internet at large is that it messes with our natural coping tendency to forget. Now, there is always a way to retrieve stuff. All stuff. If you can’t, someone else can or will. Forgetting is so much harder now. Every email, notification, alert, pop-up, widget is on a race for you to remember. But our brains have not evolved to make sense of everything, of every view possible and still have balance. So we buckle and we settle or we go mad or we contemplate it and write a piece about it so that we can move on or at least feel like we can."
https://www.rappler.com/science-nature/ideas/science-solitaire/222472-forgetbook-memories
I secretly have been thinking this way regarding all of the stress in this group. Why not just let it go and start over...?
ReplyDeleteThat - start over - was part of the magic of G+. Like the first day at a new school / office.
ReplyDeleteWhy bother deleting posts when Google will do it for you on April 2?
ReplyDeleteI'm saving only my pictures that are in danger of disappearing from Google Photos once my account "goes away".
ReplyDeleteGrace Monte de Ramos Your pictures in Google Photos will not be deleted. Don't worry. Your Google Photos account has nothing to do with closing G+.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I thought initially. But I read a comment today that said pictures stored in GPhotos will be deleted if they were posted on G. And Google does say that deleting from one service effectively deletes it from all the rest. I would like to be mistaken in my understanding of this.
ReplyDeleteKhaled Alaghil Posted on G+, sorry.
ReplyDeleteBrian Holt Hawthorne two reasons to delete.
ReplyDeleteRereading, remembering as I go.
Very minimal copypasta as required.
Bryan Ruby You really said it all. Thanks. TNQ
ReplyDeleteWhat I really would have liked to keep would have been some precious posts of the people I followed, rather than the stuff I created myself.
ReplyDeleteFrank Nestel Agreed. Although I created thousands of posts over the last 8 years, most of my G+ interaction was in comments on other people’s posts.
ReplyDeleteFrank Nestel screenshots or copypasta?
ReplyDeleteDiana Studer probably not, just let the brain drain happen.
ReplyDeleteFood for thought. Am not sure I share the preoccupation to forget. If anything, at least for the time being, I fear that in my forgetting I will experience loss—loss of lived experience (& that prospect troubles and saddens me).
ReplyDeletePerhaps I am merely stuck in the debilitating grip of...nostalgia?
ReplyDeleteMichael-David ARR Kerns I’m with you. I forget enough things in my real life, and I have seen enough family members with Alzheimer’s or dementia, that I see my online content as a potential goldmine for a future me to mine for nuggets of memory. I’ll be uploading all of my posts to a blogger blog, using the Google+ Exporter.
ReplyDeleteBrian Holt Hawthorne Sobering to consider such possibilities. I’m old enough now to appreciate, value really, everything in its place. I work hard to put aside the temptation to dismiss or belittle...even those experiences/phenomena I find unpleasant or unattractive. Not all that confident either—using your expression, that my...future self...will be able to navigate either his present or past without a lot of help.
ReplyDeleteMichael-David ARR Kerns If I could figure out a system guaranteed to keep running for decades, I would schedule emails to send notes to my future self on my birthday, reminding me of where I was at the time I write the message.
ReplyDeleteI want a time-delayed sendmail configuration, so that email sent into it will securely bounce around until the scheduled date.
Brian Holt Hawthorne That’s a beautiful vision of a technologically-enabled future, Brian, one that we could age into. Heartening (to me) that you —& perhaps others too, are out there...thinking such thoughts.
ReplyDeleteYou see? You see that right there? That's why I am a little sad that G+ is going away. People here are genuinely kind and thoughtful. No politics, B.S., or crudeness. I've thoroughly enjoyed this group...
ReplyDeleteMichael-David ARR Kerns Brian Holt Hawthorne Brad Borland We are all truly kindred 'spirits' and I value all of you so much. It is undoubtedly only my own subjective experience talking, but I found G+ to be unique among the social network platforms. Such a high concentration of brilliant minds. Damn, I am cut to the quick by the loss of this medium. I have a foothold on several others (social media platforms) but, much like a car from one's past that never loses it's luster, I have yet to find a suitable replacement. Heaven help me (lol) I will lament the loss of G+ for a very long time. TNQ
ReplyDeleteTodd Q I hear you only too well, Todd. Losing G + is indeed a source of heartache—& as Rupi Kaur writes in her wrenching poem ‘the underrated heartache’...a loss is a loss is a loss. Although I arrive at my reverence for G+ belatedly, I feel it’s imminent loss...no less keenly. I shall miss these...unexpected interactions, shared laments, and genuine inquiry.
ReplyDeleteBrian Holt Hawthorne and Michael-David ARR Kerns I have the memories encapsulated that I want on my blog. Going back about 10 years. Because of the way I use G+ I don't feel a huge loss of content. Those who are still active in my G+, and who have old or new blogs, are in my Feedly.
ReplyDeleteIt has been a good chapter but it is drawing to a natural end.
Diana Studer Thank you Diana. I might scream at the sky if I thought it would help. As things stand, I feel a bit like a jilted lover.....The anguish of this loss makes me ( no Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) feel very isolated. I crave intelligent conversation, G+ had that in abundance. Sad....Yes, very sad. TNQ
ReplyDeleteDiana Studer Part of what makes the loss of G+ so bittersweet is how long it lasted. I’ve been on the ‘net since before there was a web. I am still a part of a private e-mail group that stretched back into the pre-Internet days, but as online communities go, G+ was the longest lasting one of any size that didn’t fall into a chasm of advertising like FB and Twitter. I have my hopes up for both Pluspora and MeWe, but they are not high hopes.
ReplyDeleteTodd Q I do find nuggets of intelligent conversation on some blog posts. My G+ was also nuggets which I had to seek out.
ReplyDeleteBrian Holt Hawthorne Perhaps it is something that I am doing wrong....But, sofar, MeWe sucks as far as my ability to contact others and make a go of it. I hate these alternatives. My account freezes frequently. I can not scroll through my options. I have a new Android tablet, best and fastest... But it still does not work for me. What am I doing wrong?
ReplyDeleteDamn, I hate loosing G+. What a bad joke. TNQ
I am a proud member of the #DiehardsSociety and will be here to the bittersweet end
ReplyDeleteHave to jump for a few hours. Will circle back this evening (EST).
ReplyDeleteTodd Q I am not thrilled with MeWe yet either. Of course, I have to remember how bad G+ was the first few months. The level of intelligent discussion seems slightly better on Pluspora, and if they can just get past the lack of an iOS app and the accessibility problems with their mobile web interface, I might be able to use it.
ReplyDeleteMichael-David ARR Kerns I’ll be here until the end too, and as a G Suite user, I’ll be standing at the end of the driveway waving my handkerchief as the rest of you get shut out of the compound. It’s gonna be weird.
ReplyDelete