Stanford gossip sites have come and gone over the past few years (think: Bored at Green), and the latest one appears to catching on quickly. The site, Like A Little, is geared toward those countless individuals who are flirting impaired. Their tag line “A, tiny, teensy bit,” implies just the slightest bit of attraction is reason to use this “flirting–facilitator platform,” as the website calls itself.
Likealittle.com, since its launch last week, has allowed Stanford students to make anonymous comments to the Internet world as if they were speaking to the one they admire. Using only gender, hair color and general location at the time of the post to identify a crush, the secret admirer virtually expresses his or her sentiments/compliments about his or her crush without fear of rejection. In turn, the crush, should they happen to stumble upon the post relevant to themselves, may be able to realize that post was about them…and become supremely freaked out that someone is watching them.
Then again, this doesn’t appear to be the purpose of the site since it wishes to be “fun, flirty, and complimentary,” and is looking for content manager interns who have ideas on “how to make people feel more comfortable and not creeped out.” One effective technique that the website uses to keep things from getting creepy or offensive is having the poster speak directly to their crush versus treating them like an object in their post. I suppose that in the best-case scenario, the crush will be flattered by a post about them and reciprocate the feelings through commenting on it (again anonymously). Unfortunately, because of how new the site is, this does not currently seem to be a very likely outcome. The socially awkward should probably have a multi-pronged approach of which likealittle.com is only one part to ensure success.
Entries on this fledgling website that was started by Stanford graduate students range from sincere to funny. Some posts make the reader go “aw” and some are smirk-worthy pick up lines. Others are in the same vein as FML posts and cause intense bouts of laughter after reading them. This mix of content has garnered over 500 “likes” on Facebook.com with only one week of operation and will soon be spreading to other college campuses around the country. You may want to keep on eye on this Stanford-born startup.