Orkutmaniacs

Orkut is a Turkish man who had a funny idea while was in college (Stanford, I guess). He felt that his school was too big and too cold and for those reasons people were not socializing much there. Guys who needed roommates didn't know where to look for them and recent graduates didn't know where to ad his/her cars, computers, or personal items which were for sale. He thought of a software of a possible college network where people would publish their profiles, expose their tastes for music, food, movies, book, and other general facts, besides exchange ideas and opinions in communities where people would share the same interests, the same anger, fear, traumas, sense of humour, etc. Google bought it and now it is the most growing network of acquaintances among Brazilians.

The funniest thing about ORKUT is that you can get to meet people from early moments in one's life - like me, for instance, who got to find Daniel Schauff, a former classmate of my first German course I'd ever taken in Brazil. Another great point about it is being found there too. Last week, it was my turn to be located. I was spotted by my blogger friend BULB... Gosh! That was a nice surprise. We even got to speak on MSN after that for hours. On the other hand, I now know that I owe him E80,00... Damn it! Orkut is nice, but if you owe friends money, it's better to become an Orkut Suicidal - that is how an ex-orkut member is called...

By a simple click on a link which says 'delete profile', a person's virtual world is banished from this planet - from its virtual part though - but vanished. Pretty much the same thing happens in any site or even here among bloggers. We can place an end to our virtual space by one click away. Then, done. Boom. Gone. Doomed. That orkutmaniac must rest in peace. No more blogs, comments, Orkut communities, and even making virtual friends. The End.

... but isn't life better when lived based upon real rooms and one-0n-one conversations??? Oh well, I'll never get to answer that question again. Once, I thought so. Once, I'd say - "virtual friendship?" - "how geek!" And now? I can only say that this world has given me the chance to blurt words out in the sense that I can really think before registering them. In other words, I don't speak my mind with my online friends - I write it. And from the fact that those words will be then registered, it gives me a more concrete feeling that they can trust me and I can get to trust them as well. Just some nut idea here...