G+

Still am I trying to figure out what to make of G+. Yet another white box beckoning an unassuming user "stream" something . . . anything linky, shiny, doodlebobbers. Googlebots hungry, this time for social food.

Real social food, not the illusion of "social" that anonymity allows. Not the romantic notion of being, say. . . ejroundtheworld, flitting from Paris to NYC to Jamaica whilst licking her silver spoon.  And let's not forget that her silver spoon has grown a significant order of magnitude, courtesy of Airbnb's hefty investment to quell her whining. EJ's talent to create and feed manufactured drama is obviously very keen. Talent like that must be handsomely rewarded. After all, being "violated" by a barely legal 19-year old teenage girl who busted a lock, made off with her laptop, and left some dirty dishes in her loft. . . that is traumatic. Robbery is the most rare kind of crime in San Francisco, and nobody knows what that feels like to be robbed.

Not sure why this incident invoked such annoyance in me, but it did. We're talking the kind of annoyance that makes ashamed, ashamed that she represents herself as a "solo female American traveler" abroad. From her blog:

"I was in Dubai for 5 days longer than planned, with access to all the creature comforts I could possibly need: a bed, a hot shower, a treadmill, lip balm, peanut butter... All this, and I couldn't handle it. After only 5 days, I snapped."

Such a shame.

In any case, I can take a deep breath and know that as annoyed as I am, EJ is just living her truth. She has a right to do that, after all. And whatever rewards society bestows upon an over-privileged treadmill-wielding jetsetter are hers for one reason or another.