"Meeting the Old Fashioned Way"
Some have gone the Craigslist route, using the popular non-commercial community bulletin board as a way to find new friends. They post in the Personals section under the heading "Strictly Platonic"; the w4w (women for women) listings include requests for workout/running buddies, movie buddies, travel companions and females to go clubbing with. Judging from the number of entries posted in one week in Chicago (80), Seattle (48), Boston (52) and New York City (over 100), women all over the U.S. are finding it difficult to make the kind of steady, reliable friendships they've enjoyed in the past. As one woman wrote, "Posting on Craig's List is not something I'd normally do, but it can be difficult meeting people the old fashioned way."But Craiglist is not foolproof. Some who have used it to seek out goods or services have been scammed or even robbed. Without any controls or means of regulating its users, Craigslist and other online community-based bulletin boards are a hit-or-miss option.
Easy and Safe
In comparison, a membership-based internet friendship site makes it easy and safe for women to reach out to each other and search for friends who would be most compatible. Safety is a major concern for Blain and Girlfriend Social. Although her site gives women opportunities to share personal details (helpful in matching new friends), she leaves it up to each participant to decide how much to reveal about herself. "Members fill out a profile where they provide as much information about themselves as they are comfortable with. It's detailed application that matches women based on everything from sports to hobbies to movies, music, and books. With a few simple clicks you can match with other women in your local area who have kids the same age as yours, or read the same authors as you do. The match feature is a quick way to find women who have similar interests."
"A Friend Who 'Gets' Her"
Whereas mommy sites cater to women with young children, GFS includes women of all ages and stages of life. Blain counts among GFS members "75-year-old grandmothers looking to play cards with others and 22- year-old students looking to get out for a night of dancing," along with new moms. Some women are looking for specific friendships based on mutual interests. Blain tells the story of a woman who loved Broadway shows, an interest her husband didn't share. "Through GFS she found another woman to attend Broadway shows with. Her husband is delighted and she’s happy because now she has a friend who ‘gets’ her hobby.Blain feels that GFS and other girlfriend sites are not only long overdue, but necessary because of the way women bond -- a process that's a bit more complex in females than in males. "The friendship instinct can be found in both genders," Blain says, "but to a certain extent I think men find themselves in situations where it’s easier to make new friends. A man can go to a local sports bar, find another guy cheering for the same team, and the next thing you know he's sitting next to the other guy, having a drink and getting invited to a barbecue. Sometimes a man is invited to go golfing with a new group and by the time he’s done playing he’s friends with every guy in the group. With women, I find getting into similar situations, or into other women’s social circles isn’t quite as easy."
