The Plusone highlights and why you should make them private on Google+

I have been studying and researching the topic for a long time now.
What seemed like a great idea in the beginning has really lost its taste for countless users.

I don't know it it's the legacy of Facebook and the fact that the human animal wants to learn about things from the people he trusts? And mostly about the things he's interested in?

I'd rather join a Community with like-minded people...

The behaviour of people's plussing after this update has changed drastically: Lots less interaction on posts.

It certainly affected my behaviour.  I cut my plusones to a minimum.  That is not good for a platform that has been criticized of being a Ghost Town with no users.

I stopped giving +1's to most of the posts

Instead, I started to analyze all those posts and to think if I'd like them to be shared to all my followers. I know that Google+ doesn't share ALL of them, but I have no way of knowing which will be spread out there and which will not!  So my scuba diving, golfing and gardening peeps have suffered as I've only given +1's to my main topic or Google+ related stuff.

For instance this image / post above, which I added as an example: (Sorry!)

 What do I learn from it, how does it make my Google+ experience richer?  Our family has been sharing photos on Google+ since 2011.  Those who haven't or are new to G+ still don't know the best way to do it.

There is no tip or advice, it's not funny or instructive, it doesn't make me think; just a fairly silly gif and an announcement. So what? Why do I need to see this on my home stream, a post from someone I already have in my circles?

Just because I follow +Bradley Horowitz in case he announces something important about Google+...  Nope.  (I do follow Bradley for other reasons too :-)

I'm sorry Google, this is not working as you guys intended. Not for me.

So many people told me in private posts that they will uncircle me unless I opt out.
Countless people actually did, sometimes I could see the results of my day's +1 actions on the +CircleCount  as a downward minus. I guess this feature had the opposite effect than was hoped for?

Good idea but half-baked, we should be able to check a box on those posts that we'd like to be highlighted.

I did listen to all of you who told me so, but I needed to see myself, over a longer period.

How to opt out

Go to your Google+ settings and choose Apps & activities then click on manage:

Then modify the viewing:  You can also just add a circle here.

Since I opted out a couple of weeks ago, I've felt liberated! 

Now I can plusone freely all those posts that I like and those that I wish to encourage, without second thoughts.

Same with my business Pages.
I tried but it didn't work for me, sorry +Google+ 

I wish that the user could choose whether to see the +1 highlights or not, then the plussing could go on...

Are you still using this feature? How is it working for you?