Socializing?

Been hearing a lot about this Google + lately, how about you? It's supposed to be the most recent competition for Facebook and so far it seems to be getting lots of attention. The most recent thing I read had me intrigued and I just may have to delve a little deeper. Evidently, Google + is designed to be much more secure (not compromising users' private info with apps or "likes" I guess?) and apparently has a lot more flexibility for users to privatize their social groups, or "circles" as I believe they're called. What have you found? Anyone out there using Google + yet and liking it? Disliking it?

Maybe we'll all foresake FB one day for this newest reincarnation but for now, I'm a devoted FBer who clicks on at least once a day to virtually check in with 257 of my most distant friends and relatives. Damn, I miss BBQs and pool parties. Remember riding in the back of your neighbor's station wagon falling asleep to "Gloria" in your wet bathing suit and Pac Man towel? Those were the days. That was real socializing, in my book. In this new FB and Google + scene? Engineered socializing with a hint of agoraphobia thrown in. Convenient and very fun but scary for the development and maintenance of social skills. Whether we call them "friends" or "circles" it can't beat hanging out at the skating rink on a Saturday afternoon, slow skating to Phil Collins. Call me a romantic but I will always wonder if our crush on internet social concepts is hurting our ability to hang with or around the physical fleshy people behind the screen. If so, that could be a real shame.