Day 24

The results of this experiment seem to be assured. If this were a movie, this is where things would go into hyperdrive, this, the last quarter of our story. Something would swoop in and make things all start getting better. I would find the "secret" and would open the way to all those Friendster foot soldiers wanting to be part of Friendster nation. Cue dramatic music. (Wait for denouement, where I stride off with my Friendster girlfriend amid the cheers of all the people I've brought together via social networking software.)

But this is not a movie, so the ending is a good deal more predictable. This is an ending in keeping with the beginning. This is no bang. This is a whimper. I glide out quietly, a failure. If I want to network, I go where the masses of people like me are. I learn that, as I knew all along, I am irrelevant. I am not a trendsetter. But the end is not yet here, so I trudge on, tiring. I am heroic. I am tragic. Or I am pitiful. I am all three, depending on which storyline you want to put over this one.

Today's results--you know them already: twenty-three Friendster friends written, two replies; fourteen acquaintances written or added as friends, one reply; five invitations extended, one acceptance; thirty-five strangers written, no replies; three profile views; two added friends.