To me, this feature is distracting, annoying, and pointless. I'll read what I find interesting, thank you very much. If Google wants to make a social news/sharing site, go right ahead, but don't cram it into Google Reader. If you insist on it, at least give us an option to turn it off. As someone else mentioned, the only feature Google Reader seems to be lacking is password protected feeds. Other than that, I'm happy with it. Just keep the UI simple.