Mr. Friendster is a male, mid-20s currently in graduate school. He is one of the only people my age I know who still uses Friendster. I wanted to take the opportunity to speak with him about why.
Zach: When did you first hear about Friendster?
Mr. Friendster: I’d guess around early 2003
Zach: How’d you hear about it?
Mr. Friendster: it was my friend Sarah who invited me, late 2003, after I moved to philly. Sarah’s a friend, very social. i joined because i had just moved to a different city and it seemed like a nice way to stay in touch with people and meet others
Zach: did you immediately find it useful?
Mr. Friendster: useful isn’t the right word. enjoyable.
Zach: how so?
Mr. Friendster: well, it didn’t really seem useful in the sense of an efficient use of time, but I liked writing testimonials and stuff.
Zach: would you say that’s the activity that you most enjoyed on the site?
Mr. Friendster: yes
Zach: at what point in your life was Friendster most important?
Mr. Friendster: I can’t think of any time when it was really important per se, but it did help fill the time whenever I had a lot of down time.
Zach: did it make you feel popular in any ways? or important?
Mr. Friendster: it’s also been useful when I want to know more about someone I met once and briefly.
Zach: how so?
Mr. Friendster: well, most recently, I meet a girl a couple of weeks ago and asked her out. We talked briefly by phone to set up a date. I checked her Friendster profile before going on it before the date
Zach: did it tell you anything helpful?
Mr. Friendster: I suppose it’s one part research one part stalking but in the past it’s been helpful to know how a person presents herself/himself on the internet. You can more quickly pick up on common interests or major points of disagreement.
Zach: Is that socially acceptable?
Mr. Friendster: it’s definitely acceptable to do and to discuss with one’s close friends, but I’ve never admitted to anyone that I’ve looked at their profile in that context
Zach: you’ve invested a lot into Friendster, will you ever leave?
Mr. Friendster: I don’t see myself leaving in the near term. I hope that there will be some mergers in the personal networking world and I’ll be able to have one account for Friendster, Myspace, Facebook, orkut, linkedin, asmallworld, etc. that would benefit everyone.
Zach: do you think there’s a need for a universal profile?
Mr. Friendster: I think there’s demand for these services and that the fragmentation of the market squanders some of that demand. If these services all got together to form a universal profile, I think they’d have huge positive externalities (yes, Mr. Friendster is a ‘grad student’). Also, my laptop battery appears to be dying.
