It Was Fun While It Lasted...

I'm of an age now where I can look around and see how different the world is from when I was a kid. So many things that my young mind perceived as eternal have become abandoned relics. Some have passed from the collective memory entirely.

Every now and then, I catch a glimpse of the way things used to be. Sometimes I find an old photo, taken with a "real camera", or a treasured toy that has lived at the bottom of a box for decades. Occasionally, YouTube will show me Saturday morning commercials that someone uploaded from an old VHS recording. Always I feel a certain sense of sadness that I can't quite explain. Maybe it's a longing for simpler times. Perhaps it's because I'm reminded of how much time has passed and how fast it continues to pass. Or something else entirely that would require professional help to uncover...

Let's move on.

The other day, when I saw the dreaded Yellow Banner on Google+, decrying the End Times, I felt that sadness again. This time, however, I know why.

I'm really going to miss the only social network that felt like it "fit". Finally, a place had come along where I could find interesting people with interesting opinions on a wide variety of interesting topics. Unlike Facebook (my only previous social networking experience), Google+ offered relationships based on interests, not interests based on relationships. I was given the opportunity to expand my views, to learn things I didn't know I didn't know, and to do it all in a place where I felt equal to everyone around me.

Though "The Plus" changed in many ways over the course of its 7 years (some good, many not so good), it remained a place I returned to time and again. I can't say that I'm one of those people who founded strong friendships on the platform (I was always more of a lurker than a creator), but I did grow to respect a good many of its inhabitants, and I always looked forward to seeing what new things had piqued their interests. It's the thought of losing this, coupled with a desire to return to the exciting early years of G+ that brings me sadness.

Time does march on, though, and things change. We can get stuck pining for the past, or we can forge a new future. Many of us are returning to blogging and Twitter. It may seem like a step backwards, but I suspect we'll take what we learned from Google's social experiment and make these things into something fresh and new.

It's what I hope for, anyway.