Thursday, April 12, 2012

It isn't about How do I reach you? It's about whether or not you want to be reached!

Jeff Jarvis has a good post "bring back the busy signal" on how technology has changed the way we communicate with each other or more importantly, attempt to get through to each other using this technology.

It always amazes me how someone can say to me, "I tried but I couldn't get in touch with you".
I would have to ask, "how did you try?"  because depending on that person's personal level of friendship it would seem you would have a telephone number, possibly mailing and email address..those are the basics I should think.  Try doing a Google Search on the person, now that google+ is in the mix of search results it may make things easier and this is why it is hitting the news just as Facebook would do with regards to making everything 'opt out' which is your option to do and everything is already 'on', this does pretty much with Google+ as well, but they at least gave you some warning this would be the case. Regardless, all you have to do for your own self is see just how easy it really is to contact yourself and what information you are presenting to those you know very well and those you know as an acquaintance. It's all about networking and yes, Facebook has a big piece of that pie, but Google+ has the potential to influence a lot more people with each and every search result.
When asked what is my opinion of Google+ and "should I be signing up?", I would say, "Yes, absolutely you should sign up and immediately set up the very basic profile. One that you can see that is public.. even if it is nothing more than your name because it only means you have a point to reach out, down the road if you should decide to want to be contacted in the first place. Don't be foolish in believing just because you use the internet and have "never signed up for anything on the internet, so therefore nobody knows I exist"!