Nobody Wanted This
YouTube forced everyone into Google+ if you wanted to use the platform. You couldn’t comment, upload, do anything without a Google+ account. Google’s explanation was that it would improve discussion quality. What it really was: a Hail Mary pass from a company trying to prop up its dying social network by making it mandatory.
The backlash was instant and massive. Everyone hated it. Emma Blackery wrote a song called My Thoughts on Google+
that nailed the frustration so perfectly it went viral—a million views just from people recognizing themselves in it.
What stuck with me wasn’t the complaint itself, which felt obvious. It was watching something this transparently stupid get defended by a corporation so out of touch with its own users that it actually thought it could force adoption through administrative will. Emma’s song worked because she didn’t argue. She just stated it plainly, and a million people recognized the truth in it.