FOMS 47: Tart Willpower 0

And I think some of you may have a guess what that means. You heard me. I joined Google+.

For those of you who DON'T know me... I should probably give you some context.


FOMS: Fear of Missing Something. You heard me. I'm a joiner. I can't bear the idea that there is a party and I'm not a part of it. So when I hear about the next best thing... there I am... early to show up.

The TROUBLE with this is there is always aNOTHER next new thing soon, and I haven't had time to master the LAST new thing... so I am signed up, but left in the role of a fumbler who is a member, but not particularly active.

The OTHER TROUBLE with this is... I can't be bothered to read the instructions. I know... It's stupid and I should just do it, but I grew up in an age where part of the JOY of something was figuring the darned thing out, and READING how to do it was CHEATING. (Am I alone here? I might have twisted that around because I really HATE to read the directions)

No clue if this is legit, but funny...

Digression and disclaimer: Directions in picture form for things that need putting together are an exception. Me and IKEA are FINE friends. Or would be, had we had any money to order stuff since IKEA first hit the US... but when I was assembling my baby stuff—I rocked. Much better than the hubby who literally starts at the step where you count the pieces.



So these new things I join... since I can't be bothered to figure them out... need to suck me in deeply enough to explore. Better yet, they need to drive me to PLAY. The places I've PLAYED... I've mastered... I mastered HPANA, including some HTLM so I could attach links and pictures... I ROCK Facebook... (before that, I didn't totally suck at MySpace). Twitter, I haven't quite got... I mean I am there, and do some stuff... but... I haven't gotten the tutorial for dummies on how to HAVE FUN there, so I haven't mastered the other stuff either...

HPANA: Gnargles&Snorkaks
Facebook: Hart Johnson
Twitter: HartJohnson



Know what else I've joined?

Goodreads: And this is nice, but seems I mostly do it to give book reviews... and... erm... I don't go looking for book reviews when I choose my reading... I am quite convinced this is a poverty thing—that I will check up on books to make decisions when I have money to BUY books... And I like the Goodreads reviews better than... say Amazon... for whatever reason, Amazon seems to draw some trolls. There are criticisms that are stupid. “This book cost too much” (hello, not within author's choice if it was traditionally published.)


(Hart Johnson)

LinkedIn: Talk about not having a clue of the function... A whole bunch of people's rolodexes, yeah? But I recently found some discussions under 'writers' and those aren't too bad, there there are two circles and there can be some friction: the self-publishing circle and the traditionally publishing circles get into it now and then. In fact at the Burrow last week I wrote a fairly detailed post on the options inspired by this unfathomable friction and very strange reverse-snobbery (the self-pubbling folks calling the others stupid for 'giving up part of their hard-earned income)...erm... yeah, okay. (If you want my real response, check out that blog)


Half a dozen writing groups... I don't remember who they are. Some of them have bookmarks at home, some at work... I join, and go back once or twice, then forget...

(Hart Johnson)

And for my finale... Google+

So what did I go and do last week? Joined Google+. I hear it's all the rage. I'm sure it must be—people I respect a lot LOVE IT...

But I will leave you with this thought... I must not get it. It currently seems to me a lot like Facebook, except it spams me (a lot) in a way I haven't figured out how to turn off. I LOVE that it is in my google bar. I ADORE that I can edit my comments. But other than that, I haven't found any advantage and find it less user friendly—harder to find the conversations I care about...

Part of this may be that I live in a TMI world and figure everyone needs to hear what I find worth saying... erm... not really, but HONESTLY, I have two FB profiles... one of people I know personally (or at least very well online) and it has my personal stuff including pictures of my childings and mishaps with life generally... Then I have my AUTHOR profile, which is mostly politics and religion free (not that the other has a lot, but around elections I may express an opinion or two) and that has my ad nauseum updates on the writing process which my friends from high school only care about at about a 20% rate, and those have friended both spots.

I saw a tutorial recently... which I left open all day intending to get to, and then got tired and closed all my windows. But it comes back to me being a person who just isn't going to read the instructions...

https://plus.google.com/115121110877145330939/posts/gtz1B32pLvc#109175187243369637583/posts

But in any case, if you'd like to join me in my cluelessness on any of the above (or tell my how to get one of those handy tools that lists the lot of them for my blog) I have listed my name on each in parentheses...

Any of you have favorites of these... Blogging and FB are remaining in top spot, though I reserve my right to learn something that changes my mind...