I just tried to leave a comment in response to another member who made a wonderful point about the nature of this site only to have received an error message about my post. I put alot of thought into it only to have it evaporate right in front of my eyes so I decided I will post the content here on my blog since it seems to be the only safe place I can do so.
Please check out the latest from @emoelmo to get the context. Anyway here it is:
I agree with you that this is all pretty much just an illusion. I can't begin to tell you how many "friend requests" I get that do not amount to even the slightest bit of relevant conversation. But then I suppose it is for the best to simply accept that we are but participants in a popularity contest that is for the sole purpose of commerce and that it is not our own self esteem that will be boosted, in the end, once we come to realize the fact that nobody here is actually emotionally invested in their "friendship" with us in the least. Ironically enough I feel that the changes that were recently made to the site actually do it more justice by altering the entire dynamic of it to "followers" instead of "friends." And although I am never opposed to change, I just can't deny the feeling that whatever sense of "community" I felt from the last iteration of this site is all but extinct. I too began my journey here in the hope of stumbling across others who shared some of my quirks and would accept me for all that is me. And I can happily admit that it has not been entirely fruitless. But I truly believe that it is for the best to accept all of this as simply another form of entertainment if little else. It will not cure us of any amount of true lonliness and is even less likely to amount to finding ourselves someone special. If we take any of the attention we may receive here too seriously then we are only setting ourselves up for failure.
