edit friends

Originally uploaded by georgeaye.

Friendster was such phenomena when it hit the web a few years back. When I saw it I went nuts and so did just about eveyone else I knew. Here was a chance to be cool by showing all your friends just how many ‘friends’ you had. But the whole sweet friendship status everyone maintained was a total conceit. Writing your ‘profile’ somehow always sounded like a online dating ad and things that ‘you’re into’ again was another platform to show off how obscure and orginal your tastes were.

And everyone was doing it. A wave from both coasts of ‘friends’ connecting with ‘friends’ spread over the country like a new Usher album; tolerable on first listen, but then you catch yourself and realise that this sounds like crap and wish everyone would forget it.

And then everyone did.

Almost as soon as it burst out, it became stale and crap. “Oh I think I’ve seen that girl on Friendster. Hmm. Great.”

And I think that Friendster’s main problem is that it was just too nice. Just too polite and just too damn friendly. Where were the bitter exchanges that real friends have? Where were the back stabbing, he said, she said, “damn she’s hot”, “I can’t believe she wore that outfit”, who’s sleeping with who banter that makes up a lot of real friendships?

Did I ever make any slanderous comments to my freinds? No way. I’m far too polite for that. I know the rules of social interaction as well as anyone, but Friendster could have been a way for us to lose some of those social restraints and say what we’ve always wanted to say.

I think that Friendster should have spun a site called “Bed of Snakes” or “Web of Lies” or “Rumour Mill” or even something as benign as “Who’s the bitch I heard you slept with last night?!”

Such a great opportunity missed.