In the last few weeks, I've put myself on hip dating / befriending website Friendster at the invitation of someone I vaguely know. I suspect they wanted to make their numbers up – there's an uneasy element of a popularity contest.
Very odd, Friendster. You register a profile, describe yourself and your interests, upload a photo and let other people give approved Testimonials on what sort of wonderful person you are. And that really is it.
The London media adage of "any friend of yours is not necessarily a friend of mine" comes into its own here. Looking at Friends of Friends of Friends, I see lots of music industry types and proper pop stars who really should have better things to do. And some seem to be genuinely using it as a dating agency.
There's also lots of ex boyfriends and girlfriends happily extolling each other's virtues. "Here's my former lover – help yourself, they're a great catch." All very civilised. In a very hedonistic way.
I have deeply jaundiced and immensely unpopular views on Relationships, and am ashamed to admit that on hearing of Jude Law's divorce, my heart skipped a little. As if he'd be phoning me up the next day for a roll in a sandpit.
Unsurprisingly, I am rarely invited to weddings.
I'm not convinced Friendster will be more than a short-lived Internet fad as it's fairly limited (unlike LiveJournal), and the server keeps breaking down. But it IS less anonymous than LJ, which I naturally approve of. You're encouraged to be yourself rather than pretend you're a picture of a kitten.
The trouble is, all anyone wants to be is a picture of a kitten.
