A few months ago, appropos of absolutely nothing, I threw caution to the four winds and joined Friendster.Com. Despite being about three years behind the curve, I was curious to find out what the story was with this fabled network. Lured in by candy-colored promises of it being "the best way to stay in touch with your friends" and it being "the fastest way to discover the people and things that matter to you most," I signed up, filled out a profile and sat back....waiting for something to happen. Only, nothing did. For weeks, I'd log on and goto my profile, only to be met with the stark, cold statement: "Alex......has no friends." Evidently, no one had taken to the time to look at my profile. No one gave a damn about what my favorite book was (for the record, "Please Kill Me" by Legs McNeil & Gillian McCain) or what my Zodiac sign was (Libra). I soon learned that in Friendster, much like in life, one has to take the initiative. No one's going to hand you anything, buddy. Oh no, you have to take the first step.
Initially, I was tempted to leave it as it was, if only for comedic value. I found it both highly amusing and, when feeling too good about myself, somewhat grounding to log on periodically and be sternly informed that I still had no friends. Eventually, I succumbed. I sent a "Friend request" to my colleague, John, a.k.a. "Hot Johnny". In typical fashion, John took his sweet-assed time in responding, but eventually acquiesced. I now had one [count'em: 1] Friend. Surely now, something was going to happen.
After a while, it struck me that Friendster's only real apparent purpose was to make one feel self-conscious and unloved. Perusing through names and faces, I'd come across folks who had dozens, if not hundreds of names in their cache of Friends. Compounding that, Friendster just introduced a new feature which lets you see who has viewed your profile, sort've like a cyber "caller i.d." if you will. If you weren't self-conscious enough already, now you could wonder why (a) so few people bothered to look at your profile and (b) how come those that did didn't want to be Friends? Moreover, you could no longer browse through other members' profiles without them knowing. I started to feel somewhat obligated to send messages to those individuals whose profiles I'd read, lest they think I was some sort've pervy stalker.
Gradually, I started to seize the day and boldly fired off "Friend requests" left and right. Happily, most were gamely met with positiive responses. But still....nothing much happens. Once you start acquiring names in your list of Friends, it becomes a sort've mad race to add more, if for no other discernable purpose other than to make you feel somewhat more popular (despite the fact that no further interaction really occurs). This is not to say that the folks who've graciously allowed me to count them as Friends aren't actually friends in "real life." They are, but I don't find myself communicating with them via Friendster (and wasn't that the point?)
Anyway, much like the Friendster service itself, this post has little or no real immediately identifiable purpose other than to solicit other Frienster users. So if you're Friendsterly inclined, why not look me up?
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