@mage it’s hard to describe, but social groups (like G+) don’t have that need to be part of a single thing.
There were at least 3 different groups claiming to be ‘the’ Doctor Who group on G+ alone.

At that point picking one feels like a gamble.

As such I’d argue that the lack of effort in creating a new social group is why they feel so empty.
The only ones that (to me) seem to be worthy of my time are the ones that are indeed officially sanctioned or at least have a competent set of moderators to weed out the crap.

Facebook never cared about privacy and they never will. That’s why we’ve got Zuckerbot asking for ‘government intervention’ so they can pay of any infractions with the fat wallet they’ve got instead of having to re-examine the morality of their entire operations (which is selling user data to the highest bidder).  Zuckerberg is reacting like a naughty kid who almost got caught with his hands in the cookie jar and crumbs on his t-shirt. I simply do not trust his intentions *because* of the way his website started and *because* pretty much anything ponts toward an intent to abuse.

We’re seeing this with YouTube and the overly aggressive DMCA & copyright claiming that hurts the good while leaving the rotten apples free to do as they please.

We’re seeing it on Twitter and I’m seeing it at a local level where the full weight of the law is only used on those whose opinions are deemed ‘bad’.

Laws like the GDPR (which is 50% common sense and 50% idiot governement nod understanding the speed at which tech evolves) only serve to show how little companies care about privacy. I find it pretty disturbing what businesses would do with our data if we let them … and given how understaffed governments are I am sure we’re not seeing a few percent of the actual violations.

As for the use of social media by companies … the few that use it with good intentions and proper restraint are outnumbered by the bad who use it without moral restraint. The worst part is that there are youtubers out there who don’t seem to understand why it is important to be honest about sponsorship. It’s bad enough that companies try to enlist these “influencers” (god I hate that word) as part of their marketing campaign. But when these people don’t tell their audience that they were paid to promote the content …

I’ve grown sick and tired of the entire video game industry as a result of their behaviour (like EA claiming their loot boxes are more like ‘Kinder Eggs’ and not gambling).

I’ve read too much about the psychology of mobile game design already.

If you’ve got the time I’d suggest reading about ‘cow clicker’ … a deconstruction of farm ville that became a sick genre of its own, because companies are greedy and love to exploit humans.

https://www.wired.com/2011/12/ff-cowclicker/