No one is forced to use the networks so the issues of data donation is a personal choice.
Note to self *wonders if Facebook would recognise Red Herring as a real name*
However transparency and privacy are issues which do need addressing. Especially if you condone or appear by inactivity to condone minors using the networks. 7.5 million under thirteens on Facebook and rising, this is a demographic that do not understand privacy and data and this is an area of contention. Responsibility for this lies where? With the parents or guardians of these children, educators in schools, the network itself must take some degree of ownership.Looking at the top five popular networks, there is an evolution of centricity appearing. A clustering of common denominators around niche subjects. That said I was blogging about ego centricity and Facebook and subject centricity and Flickr, YouTube, MySpace some time ago.
Google+ – Although has been described as “as a niche geek community ” it has alot going for it’s format alone and yes there is a nice clean feel to the membership at the moment, lets hope that endures. The format allows sharing of a topic, a blog post, a photograph, an opinion, a video – content is it’s multi facetted formats – and then allows a conversation to develop centred on the original post. The ultimate peer review site?
Circles are possibly not yet fully thought through, there needs to be some format for set open circles, private members open circles and obviously your personal private circles.
Disclosure: ethereal elite and eclectic elite are two of my personal favourites and I will leave it up to your imaginations as to who is in which 😉
Another brilliant feature is Hangouts – a sort of video chatroom for ten allowing a realtime video conference. Google+ must be the only time you get to hangout with Sergey Brin and Michael Dell….
Facebook – Mass market, the Friends Reunited of the last 5 years and social media starter for kids. Privacy settings a maze you need a handbook to navigate and the walls? So over as my husband has now joined! 😉
You can create lists but to my mind they are all the wrong way round….Great for families to keep in touch. Minefield for kids – Parental Guidance required!

My_________ – the artist formerly know as MySpace to be rebranded by JustinTimberlake as the network for musicians and fans, crowdsource your songs. An excellent example of the polarizing into niche networks – a social network aimed directly and music creation and consumption. I could well see this being the new itunes for buying and discovering new music.
Watch This Space