Welcome to Steemit Peter, great to have you aboard! I personally don't care much for the likes of Google+, Facebook, Twatter, etc either, mostly because they have far too much power but also because we are generating them content which they use to sell ad space for, so in my opinion if they want me to use their platform to produce content that they will use in turn to make some form of money, then they should also be sharing some of that money with me as well, but if they're not going to do that, then the least they can do is accept the links that I pump out to their networks in order to get my voice heard and paid for in some size, shape or form. This in turn also helps promote Steemit itself of all things.

Take care, have fun, keep writing and reading! :)