The Site of the Nation.

I came across one of the ever-popular Internet sites on Philippines. I have to admit that once, I favored its environment and have embraced its pros and disembarked the cons of it. Friendster ranked as one of the top three sites (if I am not mistaken) that Filipinos visit everyday, beat that. The main objective of the site is to expand your friend-o-meter, by declaring fellow users as friends. The term ‘friends’ (either genetically or electronically connected) is a collective term in Friendster, a term that measures your addiction with the site and how cool you are. As of last year, I have been approving random friend invites: these people were seeking not friendship, but to consider me as an asset to be displayed in their museum of friends.

If your friends are below 100, it means that you are uncool: a social outcast, an ill-mannered alien who barely have the time to use the Internet and invite friends. 500 below is a pretty good figure; it indicates your starting progress within the site as you put your pictures almost daily to update your watchers. When you don’t have a single Friendster account, better drown yourself in cooking oil.

I’ve had my Friendster philosophy last year and it was so immature. I must have 1000 friends on or before New Year. Did it happen? No. I’d rather be crucified than to inform others that I am a former Friendster addict. Sue my girlfriend for telling me to do the oath of making this promise. She did make it. I didn’t.

Today – 942 friends. Most of them were still unknown: displaying cartoons as their pictures, constantly begging for testimonials or reposting surveys in the bulletin board. They invite me, I confirm them. I see a survey, I answer it, and I repost it. When I am bored, and all the assignments were finished, and the nights were cold, I would do those things. Now, I realize that I’ve became, like everyone else, a robot manufactured by Friendster.

Not that I hate Friendster. I hate its users.

Not all users, specifically – those users who would invite others with the just because. Those users that would use tHEsE letters in their profile. Those users who stole my pictures and would caption in as if it was theirs! Those users who ripped my girlfriend’s picture and branded it as: the slut who stole my boyfriend. Grrrrr.

But since they invited me, I confirm them but don’t send me messages with regards to: FRIENDSTER WILL CLOSE, please re-send this message to all your friends or else you will be banished in this site forever. Did it happen, anyway? Never.

The brighter side of Friendster is the Testimonials part. Some of my testimonials were crap: Hi, nice meeting you. Nice profile you got here. Thanks for confirming my invite, I’m Trisha. I enjoy reading testimonials that tells me who I am in their point of view, more like:

He’s the super-duper green-minded seatmate I’ve ever had.

He’s (the cutest) Glee Club member!

I’ve seen him once in *put the name of the bar*, and his performance rocks! Can I have your number?
He’s the condemned assaulter of my boyfriend!

Super Playboy! Manloloko ka!

He’s Beyotch’s boyfriend!

And I won’t forget my early blogging days in Friendster. Yes, this stupid site taught me how to blog and for some reason – convinced me to make a blog.

Good or bad, Friendster as a melting pot of races and identities – only have its main goal and they’re not even close with achieving it. Either Myspace is better, or quit signing up with social sites and better abort your Interner career.

~ by utakgago on November 12, 2006.