I enjoy certain aspects of social networking; connecting with others based on a similarity of interests. This has been formative in my ministry as I (blatantly) blagged liturgy and ideas off other peoples' blogs. As I found real encouragement from hearing people blagging from me I trust they don't mind. This enabled me to network long-distance and build up my own confidence in doing certain things.
One network I use is Last.fm. When I play a track on iPod or itunes a little thingy on my menu bar flashes red and lo and behold Last.fm find out what the track was and keep a list of charts of favourite artists, songs etc. Groovy. Somehow Last.fm then compares my preferences with those of other users and gives me a list of people with similar tastes. Yet when I look at their stuff the similarity is obvious (they have played a lot of Radiohead, for example) but then they also play stuff I can't stand. How could this person possibly be somebody I would relate if they listen to Queen or AC/DC? Bonkers!!
But I wonder exactly how rational our non-virtual friendship choices are? Benny was at school with me when we were 7 or something, but he lived in the next road so we didn't mix a huge amount other than at Sunday School. Later pre-University we would talk cheese or coffee over a game of chess when we should have been revising for important exams. Doh! Many of my current close friends result from our being thrown together by the choice of theological college and sending Diocese, although somehow difference there was often a cause of great unity as ideas and aspirations were exchanged.
So I guess in the real world there is nothing so predictable as an algorithm calculating friendship. The first wedding I ever did was the result of two people being set up on a blind date because they already had the same surname...anything that a bit of thought has gone into must surely be a better predictor of a long lasting relationship than that!
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