A Parents’ Guide to Google+

On Google+, people share ideas and personal news, post photos and videos, stay in touch, play games, plan get-togethers, send birthday wishes, do homework and
business together, find and contact long-lost friends and relatives, review books, recommend restaurants and support causes. The list goes on – you can see how individual its use is. Social networking also includes getting and giving validation and emotional support, lots of informal learning, as well as exploring personal, academic and future professional interests.

In fact, there’s very little of human life that doesn’t get expressed in a social network site. It’s sometimes called a “social utility.” Like a power grid, it provides the supporting infrastructure for the constantly changing everyday activities of millions of users, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

In effect, the “product” called Google+ is a living thing that changes constantly. Unlike the media we parents grew up with – books, newspapers, and even radio and television – it’s extremely “user-driven,” the collective product of its millions of users’ lives, updated spontaneously, moment by moment around the world and part of the social Web that increasingly mirrors all of human life.