It seems like people had a mixed reaction to Sony's focus on social. Some people, like me, see it having potential and real practical benefits. Others don't (e.g. "I don't want to let people know my real name").

So, regardless of whether you love or hate what's out there, what would you advise Sony to do to make the social features relevant and practical for you?

For me:

• Ability to record very large chunks of gameplay. Ideally, unlimited, where you can personally set aside some amount of memory/hours (e.g. 4-6). If I want to make a montage of my Battlefield gameplay, I don't want to constantly export a video every time I get a good piece of action going.
• Easy uploading/importing of video. I really think Sony should not try to create their own competitor social networking/video site. They should make it really easy for people to upload to YouTube directly or download the video to your computer for video editing.
• Video editing software in the PS3. Make it easy for anybody to create their own montages, video reviews, etc. Hell, this would be a perfect chance to integrate PlayStation eye (rant about a game, then interslice your rant with specific game footage examples). Image caption maker would be cool too.
• Integration with many video streaming sites. Not a must, but again, don't try to fight an uphill battle. Social/sharing, IMO, should be about freedom and choice. Make it easy for people to do game streaming sessions on Twitch.tv, YouTube, etc.
• "Circles" option with PSN. I think that the personal info. sharing could be valuable TBH. If you have, for example, real life friends on the PSN, you might want to actually see "xxHeadShotzxx (John Smith)" when they log on. Actually, even without the personal info. I would like to be able to selectively see popup info. for my "close" friends, rather than for all the random people I friended.
• Cross game chat/Improved PSN+Free headset. If Sony's going to push social, then they need to show their commitment by improving PSN. A very cheap headset with the console would be good too.

Nothing really, because the only social interaction I have on consoles is playing with my friends online. I personally don't need all this "social" stuff.

nothing. i gets all the social interaction i want from vgc.

I think people are hearing "social" and associating with facebook/teenbs stuff. A lot of the "social" features are pretty cool for actual gamers.

The ability to record/stream/ and upload video is awesome.

Being able to watch your friend play a game and even control his or her game really excites me.

The PSN account page or whatever showed your trophies, what game you are currently playing, if you are streaming anything, and what looks like a comment section.

A lot of the so called "social" features focus on things dealing with actual videogames :p

That's a good point, though if I remember correctly I thought they said that the PS4 does that automatically. As in it'll always be recording, i'm not really a tech guy so I don't know but it seems like that would actually be harder to just make it part of a service as oppossed to just on all PS4 consoles regardless.

Yeah it's definitely a really cool feature that I think alot of people were surprised by and at the same time excited for. We just gotta see, can't wait for E3!

Just realized another practical benefit.

You see people on the forums always asking for recommendations, and being hesitant to buy a new game. You also have some people who are adverse to trying new games (e.g. I'm not into JRPGs). With streaming, you could actually let a friend see what the gameplay is like, and even get to try it a little.

I really don't understand this obsession with sharing. Id rather they take all this crap out.

The anonymity of the internet is slowly eroding away.

Facebook is filled with real people with real pictures sharing their real lives. LinkedIn is real people sharing their full career history networking with each other.

Most websites now have a "login using Facebook" option to tap into the existing social network.

Sony is just following the progression and is tapping PSN into Facebook, and the anonymity of playing video games is going to go away too.  I very much think that MS is going to go in the same direction.

(On the flip side, Nintendo is going in the opposite direction and is trying to keep playing games as anonymous as possible)

There is absolutely nothing that I find interesting about social networks. In Fact, these features are a Malus in my opinion because some Developer will integrate these features and you will probably have to use it despite you absolutely do not want to use it.

How about using offline coop-modes so that I can play together with my wife? This feature is many years old but it is still the best.