I complained about this exact same issue on G+ a while ago: https://plus.google.com/100209651993563042175/posts/FjQ8DpMaZCn https://plus.google.com/10020965199

I complained about this exact same issue on G+ a while ago: https://plus.google.com/100209651993563042175/posts/FjQ8DpMaZCn https://plus.google.com/100209651993563042175/posts/FjQ8DpMa... Indeed, it's backwards and it's a big problem. I find myself sharing less because I constantly have the thought of my audience in the back of my mind. I don't want to spam people. There are several orthogonal directions in which people group. First, there are people who I have a relationship with for largely historical reasons, and who I've hung out with at some point for one reason or another. This includes my mom, old time high school friends, a friend from tennis class, etc. These people rarely ever share the same interests, and yet this grouping alone is emphasized in most social networks that currently exist. The other significant, orthogonal and just as important portion of my connections are people who I share an interest with, irrespective of whether or not I know them personally. These are colleagues studying the same subject at a different university, hackers, bloggers, tech enthusiasts etc. Somewhat ironically, Facebook clearly goes after the former grouping, and yet if you look through your Facebook stream you'll realize that most of it is garbage exactly because people don't have all that much to say about themselves and end up sharing mostly about their interests. It's just a mess. I was looking up to Google+ when it came out to fix this because they were coming in with the advantage of seeing the Facebook model unfold, but circles isn't it. In short, I wish social networks emphasized and catered to the power of an interest as much as they cater to the power of a personal connection.