Schtudifow what?

Since i have been here, i kept trying to find ways to meet new people and make friends without a lame "wanna be my friend?". And i got help:on-line communities. Or that s what i thought.

Communities on-line won so much popularity (and not only among the young people) that you can see everywhere new ones, even created by companies that want to ensure their customers loyalty. Communities are a way to link people that have something in common and give them some space on the Web to express themselves but also to meet.

The type of communities i am interested in are student communities like the american "Facebook" or the German "StudiVZ". Both allow you to have a profile, where you present yourself (or what you would like yourself to be) through your tastes, favourite quotes and etc but also your relationship status and what you are looking for (relationship? parties? friends? etc.).

Once your profile is set up, you can look for people you know and ask them "to confirm your friendship", which basically give them an access to your page. You can also of course upload pictures (and link your friends so that people looking at the picture know who is featured and can directly click on their profile).

You can also join groups. Groups are for people sharing the same interest than you, but if you pick StudiVZ, the aim of the group is not really to find people sharing your interests, it is more about adding something to your profile. By that, i mean that under your taste and etc, will appear the list of your group. What everyone does, is to join groups whose title says something about them. For example, i am in groups that are "a life without shoes, is like a life without purses" or "F*ck, i forgot das proper German Wort". I do not actively write messages in my groups or even read them. It just adds a lot to my profile because I am in 55 groups. Most of them have a funny purpose, not a "community" one in the original sense of it.

Another tricky thing on communities is that you do not need to know each other in "real" life to be "friends" on StudiVZ. You can, for example, look for some people in your neighbourhood and ask them to be your friends, if it goes well virtually, you can eventually meet. you can also just look for people that have the same interests, etc. Theoretically, it is a great idea. In reality, you do have dangers with that, which is what i experienced during my search of new people to meet.

First, all the losers that just to want to look like they have friends when they do not, and that add you.

Then you have all the guys adding girls expecting something really specific from their "new friends".

Finally, you shall not forget that if you ae participating actively (with pictures, groups, contact data, etc), you are giving away a lot of information about yourself that you do not want everyone to access e.g. some recruiters look up the groups you are in and put you on the grill during the interview because you joined for fun some group named "I like to drink, I like to smoke, I like to have sex...So WHAT?" or whatever group you thought was funny. And don't forget, you also have freaks there, that could call you and etc.

Of course, you can control who accesses your data. For example, my privacy settings are made to ensure that only people I accepted as my friends, can see my complete profile. the other can only see my name, and it is not even my full name (First name + first letter of my family name).

Well then the thing is that only friends you already have can contact you... see where i am going with that?

Finally, and this is an issue that ALL the people using StudiVZ experienced, the invitation of friendship from someone you know but do not feel like you MUST have this person in your friends. It is always very awkward because you can not really refuse the invitation without creating a mini-social drama, but this person is not your friend and most likely you will not talk to her or him, he/she will not talk to you: you will just be in each others list. How great.

This is why, i say careful. I started using it, thinking it would boost my social life as a new inhabitant of Munich, truth is, it did not. It is great to use it, i really enjoy having my friends on it and exchanging pics, writing on each other "Wall" and etc but i think one should be careful when it comes to your data management and your contact to strangers as well as your expectations because it is not that easy to "make friends" over Internet, not even if your email says so.