Popularity…
So I just checked my MySpace profile, because I’m eagerly awaiting a response from a friend I hadn’t heard from in a while, and I found that I actually had friend requests pending approval. Since I’m almost never on myspace (or friendster, or xanga) I was amazed that someone had actually found me. Boy was I surprised.
After clicking on the link, I was presented with a bevy of barely-clad buxom blonde-bombshell babes breathlessly begging to be bestest buddies with yours truly. (How’s that for alliteration?) On closer inspection, every one of these lovely ladies had sent me a request between 5:59 and 6:01 a.m., and every one had “ew to area, looking for adventurous playmates. Clean and fun!” listed in their profile. While I’m no net-novice when it comes to the inevitability of pr0n-spam in almost any user-accessible venue, I must admit that I was surprised at the sudden surge, since I’ve been on MySpace for about 6 months without any similar sort of deluge.
But what was truly shocking was the sheer quantity of “friends” these vivacious vixens had managed to collect in the few hours of their time on the system. Out of sheer morbid curiosity, I peeked at the profile pages, and some of them had over 500 (!) friends, all in the space of a few hours! Is it really possible that these people can’t recognize a pr0n scam from a normal person? Or are they simply so desperate to have a stable full of friends that they’ll approve anything just to get one more?
What is the appeal of adding random strangers to your “friends list”? I’ve gotten requests in the past from people as far removed as Miami, who had no friends in common, who sent a blank request asking to be my friend. Maybe I’m a curmudgeonly old misanthrope, but I don’t see any reason to call someone a “friend” until I’ve been in at least one conversation with them. Is the desire to have thousands of friends so crucial to their self-esteem? Or is it merely for bragging rights or something equally trivial? To me, the indiscriminate propagation of friends requests seems analogous to going up to any random stranger in public and begging them to be your friend.
Of course, maybe I’m the weird one.